diff --git a/src/txkube/_swagger.py b/src/txkube/_swagger.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/src/txkube/_swagger.py
+++ b/src/txkube/_swagger.py
@@ -785,6 +785,7 @@ class VersionedPClasses(object):
 
 
     def __getattr__(self, name):
+        name = name.decode("ascii")
         constant_fields = {}
         if self.name_field is not None:
             constant_fields[self.name_field] = name
diff --git a/src/txkube/test/test_swagger.py b/src/txkube/test/test_swagger.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/src/txkube/test/test_swagger.py
+++ b/src/txkube/test/test_swagger.py
@@ -703,7 +703,10 @@ class VersionedPClassesTests(TestCase):
         ``VersionedPClasses``.
         """
         a = VersionedPClasses(self.spec, u"a", name_field=u"name")
-        self.assertThat(a.foo().name, Equals(u"foo"))
+        self.assertThat(
+            a.foo().name,
+            MatchesAll(IsInstance(unicode), Equals(u"foo")),
+        )
 
 
     def test_version(self):
Make sure that ``kind`` ends up as unicode.