From Alexander McQueen to a £5M Outdoorwear Revolution: How Kasia Bromley Built ACAI Outdoorwear for Modern Women

Kasia Bromley’s journey is the kind of fashion pivot that feels both bold and meant to be. After helping craft the iconic butterfly dress at Alexander McQueen, she stepped away from couture and found new clarity in the Scottish Highlands where one frustrating hike sparked the idea for ACAI Outdoorwear.

In this Chic Style Collective exclusive interview, Kasia Bromley reveals how that moment became a £5.5 million brand empowering women through high-performance, beautifully flattering design. She shares the couture craftsmanship behind ACAI’s signature fit, the challenges of building a functional fashion business, and her ambitious vision to take the brand to £20 million and beyond.

What inspired your shift from high fashion at Alexander McQueen to creating ACAI Outdoorwear?

My time at Alexander McQueen was an incredible experience. It taught me so much about reality of working at the top of this industry. I loved the creativity of it but it left me completely drained and struggling with my mental health. I returned to Scotland and started spending a lot of time hiking up in the Highlands. I had a boyfriend at the time who was a mountain leader and, one time on a hike I was out with him and his (male) friends and one of them ridiculed me for what I was wearing (leggings and a t-shirt on a Summers day hike), which made me furious.

I went home and I ripped up a pair of my old pair of jeans, which I loved for their fit. I bought them from a charity shop for £5. I did it to make a pattern for my own pair of outdoor trousers. I then realised that there is a real opportunity in creating an outdoorwear brand just for women, creating stylish performance clothes that easily transition from street to trail, and most importantly brand that champions women in the outdoors, whether you hike up mountains or stroll in your local forests.

You famously helped design the iconic butterfly dress for Sarah Burton’s debut SS11 collection. What did that experience teach you about craftsmanship and creativity?

This experience was incredible. The level of detail and craftsmanship that goes into every piece is magnificent. It taught me attention to detail, patience, and, most importantly, how to create flattering clothes. I learned how to use curves and lines to enhance the body, something that translates into any garment, not just couture.

Those flattering lines and angles I once crafted into a McQueen dress are now delicately embedded into every ACAI garment. Combined with performance elements, they’re what create that unique ACAI DNA.

ACAI’s philosophy is that functionality can be beautiful. How do you balance technical performance with femininity in your designs?

Our approach to design is based around 3 pillars: style, performance and fit. Every ACAI garment has to tick those 3 boxes to keep this unique DNA prominent within he brand. Each pf those ensure the balance of performance and femininity is just right.

What was the biggest challenge in moving from the world of luxury fashion to building a functional, scalable business in outdoor wear?

To keep it commercial. Working on the likes of the butterfly dress is incredibly creative. I was given a good amount of creative freedom within Sarah’s brief. To then translate that into a commercial outdoor garment is a whole new kettle of fish. You need to keep that customer and her needs so it is limited how creative you can get with it but I love that challenge. I think you just need to be smarter in how you embellish those element in a more subtle way. 

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ACAI is now a £5.5 million business with plans to reach £20 million within three years. What’s driving that growth and what does the next chapter look like?

Next chapter is really exciting, We are working on new product development, going more into categories like outerwear and tops. Growing our physical presence within the UKL and going after new territories, with Europe first is incredibly exciting as I think there is a big opportunity there for our brand. The sky is the limit for us and our new senior leadership team are just brilliant and very ambitious, which is exactly what we want!

Sustainability and performance are key pillars in today’s outdoor industry. How does ACAI ensure its products are responsible as well as beautiful?

I have always been incredibly passionate about fabrics, and we always source fabrics, which have been sustainably made. Our biggest seller – the Skinny Outdoor Trousers are now available in recycled fibres. Our winter jackets have thermal insulation, and instead of down, we use material made form recycled bottles, which works as the insulating padding. It’s those fabric choices, our evergreen approach of a long terms investment in your wardrobe with classic pieces, what helps us make sure we stay sustainable as well as beautiful.

Many women describe ACAI as giving them confidence outdoors that it’s more than just clothing. What does empowerment through design mean to you?

I have always said that my goal as a designer is to make the wearer feel special. It’s not just about what it looks like but about how it makes you feel and I believe it’s those subtle touches I brought with me from couture days that makes that feeling of empowerment. It’s not a massive slogan (although we do some of that) but it’s that pocket placement, it’s the shape of the seam on a jacket, it’s the silhouette and the little details, even the lining of a jacket, a zip puller, those special touches that I believe give you that unique feeling. I also think that if you design something feeling those emotions, it translates and the wearer feels your passion too.

After your time in high fashion, do you still follow runway trends or do you deliberately stay outside that world now?

I look but I don’t follow religiously. Our world is very different. Our customer is not catwalks savvy, it’s not about following the trends, but like I said earlier, it’s about translating those patters and fits into a classic and timeless outdoor garment.

What advice would you give to women dreaming of building their own brand especially those who feel torn between creativity and practicality?

Make sure you know who you design for, understand your customer and who you want to target exactly right form the start, it will make your product development and your marketing strategy a lot easier! I think to create a practical garment you have to be creative, it’s just creative in a more constrained way, which is harder and I guess requires more skill and more design consideration.

Bottom line is for anyone who wants to make it into a commercial brand, you have to have people who want to buy your product and if you know your customer, you can still be creative but produce garment your customers will actually want to spend their money on.

To learn more about Kasia Bromly, visit the ACAI Outdoorwear website or follow along on social media @acaioutdoorwear for the latest updates and inspiring content. 

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