Molly Kent is a Melbourne-based former waitress who has launched a fashion forward, made-to-order uniform label, Day Seven.
Molly took everything she experienced and learnt from her ten years in hospitality to create locally made workwear for the contemporary services industry, a product that she feels bridges the gap between functional and fashionable.
Tell us about Day Seven.
DAY SEVEN is a work wear atelier who specialize in custom designing bespoke contemporary hospitality workwear in Melbourne Australia.
Our key pillars to design are functionality and style, elements which happen to be absent, or both rarely worn together in the front of house hospitality ‘uniform’.
As the founder, I’ve always strongly believed staff are your walking talking sales, and they should be highly considered as one of your most important interior design aspects. We bring both aesthetically creative, industry insight into every brand, project, and client.
What inspired you to start Day Seven?
I was first and mostly inspired to provide a workwear atelier for the contemporary hospitality market while I was still working on the floor in hospitality. For years I worked as a junior cook then began learning the ropes of front of house service from waitressing, bartending and hosting. After moving from job to job in different cities and countries I had gathered enough evidence from my peers and management teams that there is actually a gap in the market for job-specific functioning high-end ‘uniforms’.
I loved always interacting with the interior designers, florists and landscapers that would come into the venues, they had such a unique role in creating ‘the experience’, what people first see and feel when they walk into a venue. I found that the staff were thought of very much last on the list for curating this experience in terms of aesthetic and attitude.
So, for me starting DAY SEVEN (d7) has been largely about connecting the staff to the overall brand and building their relationship with the ‘walls’ of a venue by now considering them one of the first on the list of importance in the success of a business.
Our motivation to engage with local fashion designers when custom designing stemmed from the experience I had when companies commissioned designer labels for their uniforms. Stylish none-the-less yet lacked the industry knowledge and expertise needed to provide long lasting on the job functioning and reliable workwear.
Now with our industry knowledge collaborating with incredible local talent we’re able to custom design to an establishments specific aesthetic and taste.
Tell us about your career and background.
My first job was in hospitality when I was pushing 13, a year later when I was old enough I than began cooking in a busy little cafe and catering kitchen. Once I left high school, I travelled to a few gorgeous corners of the world picking up jobs in resorts, bars and restaurants, before returning to Melbourne and becoming a private cook whilst planning out the foundations of DAY SEVEN.
I’m self-taught in the business of fashion which is a roller coaster that I wouldn’t have any other way. It allows me to learn on the go and deep dive into the hands-on learning necessary to what we are crafting. For example, dying our buttons, and fabrics here in Melbourne. I’m always taking on new adventures, such as working in film on the side of d7, styling and set dressing expanding on both skill and community.
Describe a typical work-day for you.
I’m enjoying the new chapters daily of where I’m at in my business journey, the more that gets delegated to our beautiful experts on the production and sampling side of operations, the more time it allows me to have to dedicate to our clients working with them closely on the intricacies of their establishments, refurbs and builds.
So typically, now I spend my days on emails, in zooms, and coffee meetings visiting prospects and talking through our process. I’m much more of an IRL people-person so coming out of lockdown has been much of an excitement.
Operating a small-scale startup, I very much wear the hats in all departments so from planning photoshoots to preparing a customized visual brief for new clients are all part of my every day. and I love knowing and speaking to each one of our clients, which I would love to always be part of as the business grows.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
I’m very thankful for podcasts- there is an absolute world of superb advice out there with access to experts and successful people, particularly if you’re doing it solo without a business partner it makes the journey a little less lonely and beautifully motivating.
It’s a roller-coaster and expect it be so when you can’t reach out to people you’ve met or know for support and pick-me-up chats lean into podcasts. Innately I think I am very open minded, but I think this can truly stretch a long way when things go unexpectedly.
It’s great to stay open to learning in these moments, starting DAY SEVEN has made me really understand the saying ‘take it in your stride’.
What’s next for you, and Day Seven?
We’re looking forward to rolling out in 2022 is our uniform take-back program. After many conversations with business owners, we found that many were hoarding ‘old’ aprons that were no longer fit for service and would continue the cycle of buy and hoard over and over, perpetuating the waste issue, which is what DAY SEVEN is determined to provide solutions for.
We thought we’d start here, collaborating with business to up-cycle their old uniforms and custom design a long lasting, and functional option. Hospitality in both Australia and globally has taken its hit over the past couple years and we thought this would be a considerate way to ease owner operators into changing the way uniforms are acquired and budgeted for in the long-term, to benefit of both people and planet.
