Catherine Addai

Catherine Addai is a Ghanaian-Canadian fashion designer and founder of the women's clothing brand Kaela Kay.^[1]

Career

Addai has a degree in health informatics. She worked as a decision support consultant while working on her fashion line. She launched the label in 2013 while on maternity leave with her daughter Makaela.^[2][3]

Early in her journey, clothing alterations and fittings were completed in Addai's basement in Mississauga.^[4] With no formal training in design, fashion, she hired seamstresses from Toronto to help her learn the trade.^[2] She quit her consulting job in 2017 to work on her brand full-time. In 2019, Addai opened up her first brick-and-mortar boutique in North York.^[5] The brand is named after one of her daughters.^[4]

She works primarily with Ankara fabric, a West African fabric method of dying cotton material, and experienced some "cultural resistance" to her designs initially.^[5][4] Celebrities including Busy Philipps and Tracy Moore have worn her designs, exposing them to a wider audience.^[6]

In 2019, Addai was one of six female Canadian entrepreneurs highlighted in a digital video series Startup and Slay.^[5]

Awards

In 2018, Addai was given the People's Choice Award for Fashion Designer of the Year from ByBlacks.com.^[7] Addai was also named African Fashion Industry Awards Ladies Wear Designer of the Year three separate times.^[5]

Personal life

Addai was born in Ghana, lived in Amsterdam until she was three and moved to Canada when she was seven.^[3] Now based in Toronto, she is a wife and mother to three young children.^[8]