Catherine Addai
Catherine Addai is a Ghanaian-Canadian fashion designer and founder of the women's clothing brand Kaela Kay.
Catherine Addai
- Occupation
- fashion designer
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q112686313 · wikipedia · Catherine Addai
In this article
Career
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. Early in her journey, clothing alterations and fittings were completed in Addai's basement in Mississauga. With no formal training in design, fashion, she hired seamstresses from Toronto to help her learn the trade. 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. The brand is named after one of her daughters. She works primarily with Ankara fabric, a West African fabric method of dying cotton material, and experienced some "cultural resistance" to her designs initially. Celebrities including Busy Philipps and Tracy Moore have worn her designs, exposing them to a wider audience. In 2019, Addai was one of six female Canadian entrepreneurs highlighted in a digital video series Startup and Slay.
Personal life
Personal life
Addai was born in Ghana, lived in Amsterdam until she was three and moved to Canada when she was seven. Now based in Toronto, she is a wife and mother to three young children.
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reference work
- “Catherine Addai”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q112686313: Catherine Addai
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
In 2018, Addai was given the People's Choice Award for Fashion Designer of the Year from ByBlacks.com. Addai was also named African Fashion Industry Awards Ladies Wear Designer of the Year three separate times.
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Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Catherine Addai, revision 1255409867 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Levy, Joel. Homegrown Business: Catherine Addai of KAELA KAY. Toronto Guardian. 2021-12-20.
- 2.Digital Series Celebrates Ghanaian-Canadian Fashion Designer. Modern Ghana.
- 3.Ghana-born Catherine Addai on turning her passion into a successful clothing company with "hustle and heart". Canadian Immigrant.
- 4.Post, Colin McClelland, Special to Financial. Adapt, endure and expand: How Black entrepreneurs are handling the challenges posed by the pandemic. Financial Post. 2020-10-30.
- 5.Jonah, Sabrina. 'Modern, eclectic, chic': Toronto fashion designer marries high-fashion with African heritage. CBC News. October 20, 2019.
- 6.20 Black-Owned Businesses To Support in Toronto & The GTA. Style Democracy. June 16, 2022.
- 7.Administrator. 2018 ByBlacks.com PCA Winners List. byblacks.com.
- 8.Shannon, Michaella. 11 women share the pearl of wisdom they're reflecting on in this moment. CBC News. March 7, 2022.
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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