Find your own kind of style

Own Kind is a Geelong clothing store with a vision to see women find and own their style: from the beach to the winery and everywhere in between.

Business owners Christie Alberts and fiancé Nick Austin said since first opening the doors to their Belmont store in 2017, the vision had been to create slow fashion designs that are sustainable, versatile, and timeless.

“We were wanting to empower women,” Alberts said.

“The brand name really came about because we were wanting people to be able to wear [our clothes] their own way and be their own way.

“For us, our lifestyle, we’re very much at either the beach or the winery. So, there are a lot of outfits that you could pair back, beach to bar, beach to winery, just really comfortable wearing outfits.”

“But we really want our customer to be able to wear it their own way, we’re defined not putting them into a box on how they should wear or style them, we can be serving women from 18 to 80 and everywhere in between and we just work with them on what their needs are.”

At Own Kind, all clothes are made using only premium natural fibres such as linen, 100 per cent cotton jersey and poplin. By making only small batches of each design, Albert said the aim was to limit any wastage and uphold the businesses’ core values of being “Natural, Authentic & Connected”.

“Our focus has been around natural fibres, so we’ve introduced linens, and cottons and lots of those fabrics that are very breathable on your skin, and plus they’re durable and they last a long time which is important to us from a sustainability point of view,” Alberts said.

Own Kind specialises in women’s clothes that can be worn in every life stage, with stylists in every store to help you find your style.

Alberts said the store places a significant focus on listening to customer feedback for fit, style and function when designing each new clothing range.

“We work with our team that are serving customers in the store. Our stylists in the store are working with gaining feedback from women on style and fit,” Alberts said.

“We work back with our designers around comfort and design… for each range and season that we design.”

Own Kind presently stocks sizes 6-16 and plans to increase the range to size 18 soon.

Designs are made only by quality dress makers with a recent history working with other high-end brands both local and internationally, in order to achieve a premium product.

Since first opening in Belmont in 2017, Own Kind has opened several stores in Greater Geelong and across Victoria, include a recent Torquay pop-up store, which is looking like it might stick around, Alberts said.

Looking to the future, Alberts said there are plans for opening more store locations, while still maintaining their down-to-earth personal boutique feel they are known for.

“For Own Kind our mission is becoming an Australian lifestyle brand, and it’s important to us that we’re still maintaining a boutique brand for our customer, manufacturing small runs and we can supply that amount from a landfill point of view.”

“And making sure we can have really good customer service, because that’s something we’ve been praised on.”

Follow Own Kind online via socials, in stores, or on their website at ownkind.com.au