Kit & Ace
Location: 102 Bloor Street West, Toronto
The first thing you see walking into Kit & Ace is this massive, gorgeous wood table with one armed chairs and two long benches. Fabulous, creative and innovating. Rose gold accents all over the store. Pops of colour, plants and candles. It's like someones house just filled with clothes.
Kit & Ace is relatively new to me and as a company in itself. Founded in 2014 by Shannon and J.J. Wilson. Ironically, they are the wife and son of Lululemon’s founder Chip Wilson. Maybe that’s one of the many reasons why I fell quickly in love with this company. Another is for the sole fact of their term “full-contact lifestyle”. Feeling comfortable in your clothes from 6 am till 10 pm. Not having to feel the need to change. Strutting it in style with the comfort of athletic wear.
So who are Kit & Ace? Kit represents the female side of the brand and Ace is the male side. Both are muses for the brand; who they are making it for. Kit is any female who embraces the brand and likewise with Ace being any male.
The styles are beyond me. Quit perfect for my taste in casual-chic wear. Again mentioning the fact it’s comfortable. Kit & Ace uses Qemir™ [come ‘ere] as their proprietary fabric that brings technical properties to fibres - Technical Cashmere™. Fun fact: Every piece is wear-tested for 288 hours.
“We created Kit and Ace for people like us – people who love to move and understand how technical clothing should perform, people who are spoiled by the comfort and movement of athletic apparel and find it hard to wear anything else. We brought the comfort and performance of your gym clothes to your street clothes so you never have to sacrifice functionality for style.”
-Taken from the Kit & Ace website-
Ultimately the perfect brand for me. I’m so happy I discovered them. I went to visit their showroom on Bloor Street in Toronto. I talked with one of their staff members to get their insight on the brand. Her name was Sam and she was lovely to talk to.
K.K. What's your name?
S. It's Sam
K.K. How long have you worked for Kit & Ace?
S. Ummm since November
K.K. Are you familiar with what Kit & Ace represents?
S. Yup
K.K. So what else do you do besides working for Kit & Ace? Like how do you represent the 'Kit' part of the brand since that's the female side of it...
S. Umm...just being active in my every day life I would say. Outside of work I like to be outside and wearing the clothes...It's not like every other retailer job where it's just like you wear your clothes at work and that's it. Like I actually wear these clothes every day and they work for my everyday function. I'm just being active and out and about which is great. Even with this shirt that I'm wearing from the day to going out after work with friends...
K.K. Yea that's what I was telling my mom...it's versitile
S. Like I could take this [sweater] off and I'm ready to go. It's easy to take you from your work life to outside of work life which is great.
K.K. Awesome...And what do you love most about the company itself?
S. Ummm...That's a really good question
K.K. (Giggles)
S. Ummm...I would say they leave a lot of responsibility to us to run the shop which is great.
K.K. Oh okay...So you get involved?
S. We get very involved in the actual show room itself which is great.
K.K. So you can put your input in for designs?
S. Yea so we also do design feed back. So we really like to ask our guests that come in to our store...what they do and don't like about our pieces and we actually send that feedback back to our HQ and then they can input that into the next years designs which is great. We're always constantly looking to improve our designs.
(As you can see from the pictures above, every Kit & Ace store has a mini studio inside...always working)
K.K. So you actually do take the feedback?
S. Yea
K.K. Okay great. How has working for Kit & Ace influence you? Like have you learned anything since starting to work here?
S. I've learned a lot more about fabrications because we're very design company so what goes into making our product and what fabrics were actually used to make our company and how important that is to have certain fabrications in your clothing like a spandex with extra stretch...things like that.
K.K. Awesome that's great! If you have more time do you mind showing me some of your favourite pieces?
S. Yea definitely...
Sam then showed my this gorgeous royal blue romper, the 'Hid and Sleek Silk Romper' in Iconic Blue. Such an eye popper. It's a sleeveless top with a v-neck and flaps, a slimming torso and a bottom with a secret. The bottom looks like a skirt but has hidden shorts. Ultimate comfort for summer evenings out.
Let's not forget about the classic white T. Never fails. (another favourite product of her's)
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Thank you so much to the Kit & Ace showroom on Bloor St., Toronto and to Sam for taking the time to answer a few questions. Also for allowing me to take pictures was so generous of you.
Kit & Ace
