In 1989, Kelly Grace — then a student at the University of Western Ontario — registered her company, a place where fellow students could order personalized sweatshirts for their sororities, fraternities, teams and faculties. In 1994, Bragwear was incorporated. The company expanded into private label designs for corporations under the trade name Natural Talents Clothing Ltd.
Years later, using leftover fabrics from her manufacturing shop in old Montreal, Kelly sewed capes for her two adventurous young sons. After the arrival of a daughter in 2005, she again sewed up a storm for a “Grace Capes and Cupcakes” party at her tiny daughter’s enthusiastic request.
The guests oohed and aahed as each was presented a custom magic cape. Kelly’s heart swelled to see their little faces, beaming as they squealed and soared around her yard. What a flashback! The children were not unlike her university mates, who — twenty years earlier — would light up when she hand-delivered their Bragwear sweatshirts in the campus pub!
Kelly was encouraged to expand her wear and share concept beyond her own backyard. To accomplish this, she has created an ever-expanding line of wear and gear to carry a personal message into the world. As this social entrepreneurship venture grows, it is being documented in each child’s Grace Capes keepsake chart and on this website. Kelly also published Seeding Imaginations, a picture book to explain the origins of every child’s caped adventure.
Kelly’s hope is to activate conversations and interactions toward meaningful moments that will shape ourselves and the world we share with our children.
“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”
-Emerson
