Day Seven is tailoring a new style of functional workwear

For most hospitality workers, uniform options are limited. You either get something pretty stock-standard (that’s likely been sitting in a cupboard for months/doesn’t really fit/has been worn by someone else) or you get an apron to wear over your civvies. Functional workwear, that actually looks good, is a bit of a unicorn.

Day Seven is changing that. Founded by Molly Kent in 2019, Day Seven’s aim is to provide comfortable, practical workwear that staff can feel confident in and proud to wear.

The seed for Day Seven was planted when Molly was working in hospitality. Her boss had asked her to source some staff uniforms, because they were struggling to find something stylish and practical that would suit their aesthetic. “It was a really beautiful place. They had all the details down, from the cutlery to the glassware, the interior walls, everything,” Molly recalls. “But they didn’t know where to get uniforms without looking the same as the place next door.”

Molly was faced with three options: bulk-buy uniforms that everyone’s wearing, go to a designer for a bespoke collection, or start making her own. She went with the third.
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Day Seven provides functional workwear (complete with extra pockets, concealed terry-towelling cloths and stretch-cotton cuffs) that’s made to order. This means that there’s no limited size range – Day Seven’s gender-Inclusive styles can be made for everyone. “We want to reflect who works in hospitality,” Molly explains. “It’s age, gender, size, ethnicity. It’s all these different people coming together in the industry.”

When clothing is tailor-made, businesses don’t need to buy stock in bulk, and uniforms don’t need to be stored for months on end. “Rather than giving new staff members a uniform that might not fit properly, businesses can order from us based on a person’s actual size,” she says. “That new staff member is going to get something that’s made for them, with purpose and consideration, that they’ll feel confident and comfortable in.”

Tailor-made clothing also reduces waste. “We don’t see nearly as much waste as we would if we were designing collections and dropping them into shops,” says Molly. “We’re able to monitor every single piece of fabric waste we create and then repurpose that back into different byproducts, like our delivery bags.”  

Even though Day Seven creates clothing using durable materials, Molly and the team know that uniforms do wear out, which is why they offer lifetime repairs and tailoring for when circumstances change. “Say you were pregnant and needed pants that were elasticated, we can offer that service,” she says. “We’re trying to change that mindset of ‘It’s just a uniform, we can throw it away and get a new one’. Instead, we’re creating clothes you’ll love and want to keep wearing.”
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For businesses looking to upgrade their uniforms, there’s the question of what to do with the old ones. “We take them too,” Molly says, adding that their team of Melbourne-based seamstresses will recreate, redesign and repurpose them into other products or sample uniforms. “When new clients come to us, we’re not only offering them a new uniform solution, we’re also offering them a solution for their waste so that it’s not going to landfill.”

Molly is a new Bank Australia customer, joining due to an alignment of values. “We spend so much time talking about our values with our clients,” she says. “It was really important for us to make sure we were adapting these values in every aspect of our business as well, that everything we do is ethical, and that we’re super transparent about how we operate. And that includes our banking.”

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Read more about how Bank Australia customers are shaking up their industries.

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