how to deal with unicode?

Dealing with just Python 2 for now, I understand that patsy expects strings. But the data containers might not have this design. So what's the recommended way for handling this? Should we be messing with the data keys under the hood, or should patsy? The only way I can think to handle this (other than statsmodels doing it under the hood) is for patsy to accept unicode but also an encoding so the formula and they data keys can both be encoded correctly. E.g., this fails

import pandas as pd 
import patsy

data = pd.DataFrame({
    u'àèéòù' : np.random.randn(100),
    'x' : np.random.randn(100)})

formula = u"Q('àèéòù') ~ x".encode('utf-8')
dmatrices = patsy.dmatrices(formula, data=data)

But if we also encode the data keys, it's fine. So should dmatrices and whatever other entry points also take an encoding? Am I missing something?

Start by reproducing the reported failure at the patsy.dmatrices entry point with the Unicode formula and DataFrame keys shown in the issue. Inspect how the formula and data keys are handled, then establish whether the issue is resolved by documenting a recommendation or by defining encoding support for the affected entry points.