Told she wasn’t dressed for the outdoors, Kasia Bromley built a brand that changed the conversation. Today, ACAI is one of the UK’s fastest-growing womenswear success stories.
Kasia Bromley didn’t set out to become a womenswear founder rewriting the rules of outdoor clothing. But from an early obsession with fashion to a defining stint at Alexander McQueen, followed by a frustration-fuelled lightbulb moment on a hike, her career has been shaped by a clear instinct: women deserve better from the clothes they wear.
Kasia was born in rural Poland, where she grew up watching her parents graft at their flower business. She was mocked as a child for her dream of becoming a fashion designer, but fast forward fifteen years and she had secured a coveted internship at Alexander McQueen. If her parents had taught her anything it was that hard work and dedication were essential.
At Alexander McQueen she worked on Sarah Burton’s debut SS11 collection and helped create the iconic butterfly dress which is now exhibited in the Met Museum. Kasia still remembers working on this labour of love vividly. “I literally laid the mannequin next to me and slept hugging it to make sure it was safe,” she recalls of transporting it to Paris Fashion Week, a detail that says everything about how seriously she took her work.
After McQueen, Kasia began to realise that high fashion was not the long-term world she wanted to stay in. She loved the creativity, but she missed the outdoors, movement and a more grounded way of living.
A year in Korea helped broaden that perspective further, giving her time to make samples, source fabrics and refine the idea that would eventually become ACAI.
But the real turning point came later, on a hike with an all-male group. Kasia was told, in effect, that she had no place hiking on the Highlands, as she wasn’t dressed in the appropriate gear. Coming from a career in fashion, Kasia didn’t want to sign up to oversized waterproof trousers and clothing that has designed for men, then ‘pinked and shrinked’ for women.
This lit a flame in Kasia. Why should women have to choose between looking good and feeling comfortable outdoors? That frustration became the spark for ACAI: a brand built to prove that outdoorwear could be feminine, functional and flattering all at once.
ACAI was founded in 2016, and from the beginning Kasia set out to challenge the idea that women’s outdoorwear had to be bulky, unfeminine or interchangeable with menswear.
Her solution was to build clothes that balanced “style, performance and fit” in equal measure, a philosophy that has become central to the brand. The result was a product range that resonated quickly, especially the signature skinny outdoor trousers, which have sold more than 50,000 pairs. What started as a response to frustration has grown into a brand with real commercial weight and a clear point of view.
The scale of that achievement becomes even more striking when you look at some of the challenges of Kasia’s founder journey. Kasia and her husband, Joe, built ACAI through periods of serious financial pressure. At one point the couple had sold their sofa and car, gave up their rental flat and had to move in with family as they had no money left. Kasia returned to her childhood bedroom in Poland with her young son to teach herself digital marketing.
“Giving up was not an option” says Kasia. “We had invested so much and still had the self belief that it was going to work. It just took us longer to get there than we envisaged.”
Today, the business has reached £5.5 million turnover. Looking ahead the brand is considering overseas expansion, with long-term ambitions to launch internationally.
Just as important as the business success is the way Kasia talks about women supporting women.
“I think it’s harder for female entrepreneurs than men. We have to balance pregnancy and young children. There’s enormous pressure to ‘do it all’ and, trust me, I’ve been there. I often say I have four children – ACAI being the eldest, and often the most demanding!”
“My advice for others: Believe in yourself. Do less but better. Focus on less things.”
It is a line that sums up her approach neatly: disciplined, determined and practical, but never lacking in ambition.
What makes Kasia worth watching now is that she has already proven she can turn a personal frustration into a brand with real momentum. She has the fashion credentials, the business track record and the clarity of vision to keep ACAI growing, but she also has something harder to manufacture: a point of view. In an industry that still too often asks women to compromise, Kasia is building something that insists they should not have to.
