Do you want to go to Iceland and die?

In the Innovation House at Eiðistorg, Kenyan Grace Achieng has a small office where her fashion company Gracelandic is based. Grace welcomes a journalist who admires the rows of dresses, shirts and jumpsuits hanging there, all made of the finest raw silk or linen. The clothes are all designed by Grace, made in Turkey and Romania.

Marriage in three days

When Grace was 25 and still living in Kenya, she met an Icelandic man on a dating site. He then made his way to Kenya to meet her. It wasn’t until three days later that they got married.

“We got married without me planning it,” says Grace, telling the story of this hasty marriage.

“When he got to Kenya, he started asking me about the laws regarding marriage, but I had no idea about them. I asked my friend if he knew anything, but he didn’t know anything either. He then called me and told me about his friend who worked for the sheriff’s office and suggested we go to him for more information. We showed up and suddenly we were in a line of people getting married. We didn’t know, but when we realized it, we looked at each other and said, “Should we just get married?””

“I didn’t tell anyone about it at first, not my friends or my mom and dad. But then we went on a trip and drove to my mom and dad’s house a week after the wedding. My mom went crazy,” she says with a smile.

“I was in love with him but didn’t know him at all, but we were both very impulsive and it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. It was 2010 and Eyjafjallajökull glacier had just erupted and my mom asked me if I wanted to go to Iceland and die,” she says with a laugh.

Confined in Sauðárkrókur

Three months later, Grace flew to Iceland with her new husband and moved straight to Sauðárkrókur, his hometown.

“It was very strange living in the countryside like this. I immediately felt isolated and didn’t feel like I belonged there. I woke up in the morning surrounded by mountains and fell into a deep valley. The relationship was very difficult, for both of us, but I wasn’t adjusting to this rural village, coming from the big city of Mombasa,” she says.

“People spoke to me around me but I didn’t understand Icelandic and I found it quite strange and life was all very difficult. I got a fish processing plant job and stayed there for a few months. I just wanted to turn around and go home, but soon I broke up with him and went to Reykjavík. It was easy for me to get out of that relationship because I had experienced instability as a child and knew what I wanted. I went to Reykjavík and got help finding a job because I wanted to stay here longer. I worked all kinds of low-paying jobs, but I wanted to work in the fashion industry because when I was a teenager in Kenya, I started doing business right away and I loved it. At sixteen, I had saved up pocket money to use on the bus and went to the street market and bought clothes and then sold them to my schoolmates. I loved seeing how people felt when they got beautiful clothes,” she says.

“At the University of Mombasa, I had sometimes worked as a stylist to earn some money. So even though I studied marketing, I wanted to work in something related to fashion but I couldn’t get a job in that sector. Then I started working in a kindergarten and worked there for a very long time but I always felt like something was missing. I wanted a challenge and I was stuck; this wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

Wanted to be part of the solution

“I bought a sewing machine and fabric and started looking at YouTube and Pinterest and all kinds of sites that taught me how to tailor, cut and sew. I also took a course to learn how to communicate my ideas. I felt like I was dreaming; that these were just dreams, but at that time I had a small child,” says Grace, who was living with an Icelandic man for three years and had a daughter, Tanja, who is now thirteen years old.

“I knew I had to provide for myself and my daughter and was only supposed to work nine to five, but I didn’t feel good. In 2020, I decided to jump into the deep end and started a company because I knew that if I didn’t start it, I wouldn’t take it seriously. I then founded Gracelandic,” says Grace, who already in 2015 had designed a mini-line and brought the clothes to a show; clothes that she designed and sewed herself.

"Then I knew I wanted to do this and formally registered the company in 2020 and started doing market research. That's how I learned more about the fashion industry and about "slow fashion" and found that I wanted my fashion that way. I had always been drawing something along with my work at a kindergarten and then started working with a graphic designer who changed my drawings and put them into a computer-readable form. At this time, I had stopped working at a kindergarten, but I was in a car accident and was able to use some benefits to survive and work for the company. In July 2021, I officially opened Gracelandic online," says Grace, who also completed a BA in Icelandic as a second language. Today, she is doing an internship at Advania and a full-time master's degree in environmental and natural resources studies. Grace has an extremely good command of Icelandic and speaks a very beautiful language.

“At Advania, I write sustainability reports and work on everything related to sustainability and circular systems. I also work online at Gracelandic and welcome women who want to come in for a fitting. There’s plenty to do! I’m also a board member of FKA, the Icelandic Women’s Association. I always like to be involved in more than one thing at a time.”

“Last year I graduated with a BA in Icelandic as a second language. In order to be able to speak well, I felt I had to go to the program because even though there are all kinds of courses and all kinds of apps, they never teach you how to speak Icelandic well enough. This was a good way to learn written and spoken Icelandic and the history of Iceland,” she says.

Project- and results-driven

Grace quickly realized that she wanted to get to know women in entrepreneurial and business roles. Someone suggested FKA to her and she applied to become a member.

“I started attending events right away and it was so much fun. People were so open and I immediately got a mentor. I learned a lot about business and marketing from being in this environment and it broadened my horizons,” she says.

“I met a lot of Icelandic women, but there was also a committee for women of foreign origin, but it wasn’t active. So I just decided to do something, since we had this platform. I found women and put together a group and was elected chair of the committee. Since then, more women have joined and the committee took off and is now very active. I am now on the board of FKA,” she says.

“Although I am currently studying environmental and natural resources science and want to get a suitable job after graduation, I also plan to continue with Gracelandic. I also aim to provide advice to companies on sustainability and life cycle analysis, help them implement sustainable solutions, and reduce their environmental impact. I am so project- and results-driven. I want to have all kinds of projects to work on. "My grandfather and my aunt are my role models, but they were very successful and always had a lot going on at once, even though they came from very difficult backgrounds and were raised in poverty. They didn't let that stop them. I'm the same. I'm open to opportunities."