The Canadian brand Kit and Ace opened its first shop in Vancouver’s design-centric neighborhood of Gastown in the summer of 2014. 39 stores and eight pop-up shops later, the technical cashmere company is disrupting fashion’s current offering of athleisure and carving out a new market category fueled by the creative communities they are joining.
Kit and Ace is the brainchild of JJ and Shannon Wilson. JJ is the son of Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon. In an attempt to fill the void between yoga clothes and street clothes, the Wilsons created a proprietary fabric that combines technical attributes and luxury fibers. They are designing day-to-night clothing for someone living a ‘full contact life’, someone whose time is precious. This mantra hangs in neon lights in the company’s newly opened Austin shop and is the connective thread between visual aesthetics and how a customer moves through the space.
The brand’s passion for community rings true with this new Austin location, which sees them partnering with local painter Jenny Granberry and photographer Matt Crump. Kit and Ace gives autonomy to each location’s so-called ‘Creative Class’ to create a custom store with each opening. The shop acts as a gallery space and teams up with area lighting designers, photographers, artists and makers, always incorporating iconic local photography and a rotating art wall. The epitome of these hyper-local partnerships comes in the form of a Supper Club table in each store that's used to host monthly invite-only meetings for creatives to indulge in local fare and celebrate good company.
Kit and Ace is the brainchild of JJ and Shannon Wilson, who created a proprietary fabric that combines technical attributes and luxury fibers in an attempt to fill the void between yoga gear and street clothes
The brand's wares are made from a proprietary fabric that combines technical attributes and luxury fibers
The brand partnered with local painter Jenny Granberry and photographer Matt Crump to create a space that speaks to its local community
Each Kit & Ace shop acts as a gallery space to showcase the work of lighting designers, photographers, artists and makers, with a rotating art wall
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Kit and Ace
608 W Monroe St, Suite D
Austin, Texas
-
First look – Bottega Veneta and Flos release a special edition of the Model 600Gino Sarfatti’s fan favourite from 1966 is born again with Bottega Veneta’s signature treatments gracing its leather base
-
We stepped inside the Stedelijk Museum's newest addition in AmsterdamAmsterdam's Stedelijk Museum has unveiled its latest addition, the brand-new Don Quixote Sculpture Hall by Paul Cournet of Rotterdam creative agency Cloud
-
On a sloped Los Angeles site, a cascade of green 'boxes' offers inside outside livingUnStack, a house by FreelandBuck, is a cascading series of bright green volumes, with mountain views
-
Top British fashion designers create unique works for Parkinson’s charity fundraiserJoined by a host of top name artists, fashion designers create one-off art works for Cure 3. Visit our Instagram Stories for interviews with some of the participating fashion designers.
-
Supaform polishes up dental care design in St Petersburg -
All’s well at Clerkenwell London’s new spa -
Mind over matter: lifestyle brand Zazen Bear creates a tranquil haven in New York
