FALL WHERE THEY MAY: Officially, Lululemon Athletica yoga-wear founder Chip Wilson has no connection to Kit and Ace. That’s the firm the billionaire’s wife Shannon and son J.J. Wilson founded in January and that opened its first retail outlets July 31. As for Chip being uninvolved, some claim to see through that as they did a batch of sheer Lululemon pants that, recalled in March 2013, helped precipitate a $2-billion-range drop in the chain’s market value.
Going on face value, though, Shannon and J.J.’s independent enterprise was founded quickly and with aggressive plans to build an international market for garments using its own luxury-technical fabric. Shannon designed the blend of cashmere, viscose and elastane in 2012, when she and Chip resided at Bronte Beach in suburban Sydney, Australia. Trademarked Qemir (which rhymes with “come here”), the Italy-milled material is employed in Kit and Ace’s launch line of $64 to $84 T-shirts. Women’s and men’s pants and suchlike are due this fall.
By then, wholly owned studio versions of Kit and Ace’s Gastown store should be open in Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Toronto, New York and San Francisco. Each will feature the original’s 2.4-metre-by-2.4-metre table for client powwows and catered dinners. Within a year, Shannon said those 1,500-square-foot-range outlets will double in area to be flagship stores with tailoring facilities and in-house designers.
Shannon was a designer herself in 2000 when she joined fledgling Lululemon’s then-four employees in a second-floor Kitsilano facility. She later worked on the organic Oqoqo line, married boss Chip and had three children.
J.J., 25, got a Ryerson U degree in retail merchandising and worked with a private-equity firm in Boston and the Clinton Foundation in New York, Returning to Vancouver, he launched e-commerce operations for menswear firm Wings+Horns, and established the brand with New York department store Bloomingdale’s.
Kit and Ace aren’t nicknames from the Wilsons’ clan’s $54-million Point Grey Road mansion. Nor is there a link to Ace Aasen, the self-proclaimed mayor of 1970s Gastown. “We decided that the perfect girl to wear technical clothing would be named Kit and have a boyfriend Ace,” J.J. said.
As for the firm gaining quick occupancy of 151 Water St.’s 4,500-square-foot main floor, the basement and a second-floor graphics studio, that came easy. The building is one of several owned by Low Tide Properties, a Wilson family firm. “We pay rent, though,” Shannon said. “It’s all straight up.”
That’s how she and J.J. hope their enterprise will go. It had better. Some 35 people are employed at the store-design-office, and 40 more one block east. Those familiar with Lululemon may see some familiar faces at both. Not Chip’s, though, they say.
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