Designing her future
While business graduate Katherine Gracey was building a prestigious career in marketing, her passion for fashion never left her. She now runs a small clothing business built on an ethos of inclusivity and staying true to her non-negotiables.
A business degree at ACU’s Melbourne Campus wasn’t Katherine’s original plan. “It was always nursing. I’d based all of my Year 11 and 12 subjects on this idea, but halfway through I realised I just wasn’t particularly passionate about biology. At the time, my dad was working in sales and I’d overhear him talking on the phone. It really appealed to me. Majoring in marketing was the new plan.
“But I admit, I did freak out a bit once I got to ACU and was suddenly having to study things like micro- and macro-economics when I’d always tried so hard to avoid qualitative maths! Luckily, I had a great lecturer who was extremely funny and dry, and somehow he always found a way to make it enjoyable and easy to understand. I was in lectures with about 100 people, but he knew all of us and we could always ask questions. And once I got to study subjects like advertising, I knew I had chosen the right course.”
Moving up
After completing her degree, Katherine got a job at a small sales company to get her career going.
“I ended up working there for 18 months and I really liked it,” she said. “And then because I had this experience under my belt, I was able to move into a sales graduate role in the IT division at Fujitsu.”
After honing her skills at Fujitsu, Katherine took some time out to travel overseas and worked briefly in London-based media agency before returning home to determine her next move.
“I was thinking about the casual jobs I’d had as a teenager and I knew I really loved retail.
"I ended up getting a job for the brand HP that serviced Harvey Norman stores. It was a much better fit for me. Then I was headhunted by Harvey Norman itself.
“I ended up working there for six years. I started as the product and marketing manager. Of everything I’d done in my career, this was by far my favourite role. I got to do everything – I was writing radio and TV ads, buying products, putting sales events together. Doing something I loved really gave me confidence for the first time in my career.”
Out on her own
By the time she was 30, Katherine was running the marketing for Harvey Norman’s computer division, a $1.2 billion category, with 24 people reporting to her. After having kids, she moved onto another marketing role with Mercedes-Benz Australia. She was busy with two kids, but she said running her own business was never far from her mind.
“As life at home got busier, I thought there must be a smarter way for me to contribute to my career and do what I want to do on my own terms.
“My parents ran their own business for 20 years and I got to see firsthand everything that goes along with that.
“I’ve always had a passion for fashion, always, from the time I was a little girl. I’d tried to get roles in fashion before, but they always look for experience. That’s a real bugbear of mine. If you’re a marketer, you’re a marketer – you know how to market anything, whether it’s a computer, a car or a t-shirt. So, I thought ‘Why don’t I just do this myself?’”.
Soon after, Uniek was born.
“It felt like there was a gap in the market and I was a bit tired of not feeling represented by the brands I loved because of my age.
"My dad was really passionate about local manufacturing, so I knew that would be a big part of the business too, and it had be Australian made, good quality and created to last. My husband offered his support and here we are 12 months later with a clothing line!”
The non-negotiables
It takes just a glance at Uniek’s website to see diversity and inclusivity is important to Katherine, with all of the models carefully chosen to represent the brand’s values.
