Two weeks ago, I boarded a plane heading to Vancouver all by my lonesome, only to end up in the Loden Hotel with a note on my desk accompanied by some well-received mineral water. Little did I know that the next two days would be some of the most memorable of the year. Fast forward through a few hours of star-fishing on a very comfortable bed and re-assuring my parents via text that I wasn’t tied up in a warehouse to 6:30 PM, when I finally got to meet the other 8 bloggers flown out by Kit & Ace. Meet Dani and Bianca (Kastor and Pollux), Ania (Ania B), Laura (On The Racks), Oksana (Wear See Snap), Ann (Andy Heart), and Jenny (Margo & Me). And I shan’t forget the mastermind genius behind the whole weekend, Courtney, photographer extraordinaire Alexander Ting, Kit & Ace founders Shannon and J.J. Wilson, and of course, all the S.O.’s who accompanied us along our #YVR journeys.So, some of you may be wondering, what exactly is Kit & Ace? Thanks to our many conversations over the weekend, I actually learned a few things–one of those things being that Kit & Ace is a technical luxury brand that, above all, values integrity, transparency, and communication (slow clap for me). But then, you ask, what is technical luxury? I guess the best way to describe it is “practical clothing made from the best fabrics.” And when I mean the best fabrics, I mean the best. Think machine-washable cashmere-blends. Machine-washable and cashmere in the same sentence? Yeah. Dig that.
As for the rest of my weekend, I can wholesomely say that every day was a treat. I mean, not only did we have coffee brought to our rooms every morning, but we managed to take a quick visit to Granville Island, sneak in a lil’ bike ride around Stanley Park, dine like Greek goddesses (or how I would imagine them to dine) for at least half the day, and best of all, smother ourselves in cashmere-blended basics. It’s not every day that you can participate in a Kit & Ace design meeting, or sit in at the first ever ~super~ exclusive “supper club” (catered by God-sent chef David Gunawan of Farmer’s Apprentice) at the Kit & Ace studio.
So, if there’s anything I’m going to take away from this weekend, it’s that: a) biking up huge hills for ice cream isn’t half as bad as it seems, and b) conversation is important. After all, the whole theme of the weekend was creating conversations, whether they be about our #goals or about our guilty pleasure workout songs. And if there’s anything for you guys to be excited for, its that Kit & Ace is opening studios all over North America in the following months. For those of you in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto, New York, and San Francisco, you’ll soon be able to witness the concept of technical luxury first hand. And when you do, we can only hope that you’ll feel inspired to start creating conversations too.
