As much as we love a good Saturday sleep-in (and subsequent lazy brunches), there are some things that are just worth that early morning trek to Brooklyn. Making the trip across the bridge almost always marks something special for us: it's one we've made for Stacy London, Jenné Lombardo, to hit up Catbird, and now, to shoot Aya Kanai.
We rolled up to Kanai's Brooklyn loft, where she ushered us into the open-concept space, all exposed bricks and beams, which she shares with her boyfriend, an embedded systems engineer. While his nine-to-five may not sound as if it would necessarily lend itself to the aesthetic of their home, we got to hand it to him for not only their kitschy-cool arcade games and pinball machines, but also the wooden risers where they sleep, as well as the fully-functional wooden swing hanging from their ceiling. Did we mention he also built out her closet? Hashtag winner.
When it came time to get sorting through Kanai's closet, we'd noticed from our tour earlier that she'd gone ahead and pre-styled a few different vignettes (always the editor). With a few (very minor) tweakings, we'd had quite a bit of our work done for us. Kanai's eye (or should we say Ay?) is absolutely impeccable, thanks in part to a seriously impressive résumé under her belt, and having family in the industry (her mom is a longtime employee of Issey Miyake). Having styled the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Ashley Olsen, and Kirsten Dunst, Kanai's also seen the launch of both Nylon and Teen Vogue, prior to making the move over to Shopbop, as their head stylist. And beside the more obvious perks, Kanai also worked with some of the industry's major players when they were just getting their start—does the name Alexander Wang ring a bell at all? While showing us pieces from Wang's first collection (yes, really), Kanai told us how he'd given her pieces after being her intern at Teen Vogue. No big deal, right?
