In the bedroom, Jane wears a colorful Chloé sweater. Flowers from GRDN on Hoyt Street in her neighborhood. Jane found the painting off Avenue Daumesnil in Paris.
Jane's bedside table is made from mirrored boxes, books, and a piece of old decking that she found on the sidewalk. She bought the painting in Stockholm when she went there doing a story on Acne for Vogue. The Gemini figurines––she and her fiancé are both Geminis––are from John Derian.
Hail from:
“Los Angeles, California.”
Now live in:
“Brooklyn, New York.”
In the kitchen, Jane wears a Marni top and jeweled collar, a Jeremy Laing pencil skirt, and YSL heels. A dinner menu––bacon-braised kale is a house specialty.
Describe your style in five words or less:
“Boy-meets-girl.”
In the living room, Jane wears an Ann Demeulemeester shirt, Topshop pants, vintage sandals, and Jody Candrian cuff. The bookshelf was a Christmas present that her fiancé Justin built for her.
"Our mementos: Dried seaweed from Tulum, birch bark from the shores of Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire (where Justin and I spend our weekends in the summertime), driftwood from Cortes Island in British Columbia, a mercury glass vase from my mother, a Zeuthen vase from Copenhagen (a gift from Justin’s brother, Tim), an embroidered napkin from Zihuatanejo, Mexico (framed; a gift from Justin’s mother), tulips from GRDN, and the surfing monkey we adopted unexpectedly (also a gift from Justin’s mom)."
Last year, you moved from being a writer at Vogue to working with designer Patrick Robinson at the Gap...how has the switch affected your outlook on fashion and your own personal style?
“At Gap, I’m much more connected to the process of making clothes, which makes me keenly aware of the details. I’ve always appreciated fashion, and certainly at Vogue I learned how to really see clothes––the most exquisite clothes on the planet, at that. Now, working for Patrick I get to watch it all come together, from the concept to the store floor, with everything from the colors, to the fabrics, to sketches and the samples in between. It’s really given me a whole new appreciation for the work that all designers do. As for my personal style, I wouldn’t say it’s changed that much since I moved to Gap––I still wear mostly separates and flats. But I’ve definitely become pickier about what I buy. I’ll check the tag on a T-shirt for its fabric content, for example, and I’m stickler for properly finished seams.”
“If I’m sentimental about anything, it’s shoes, specifically the ones I wore during distinct times in my life. There are the high-school Birkenstocks, the Marc Jacobs flats I had in college, the Dries van Noten boots I loved in my early twenties, the jewel-heeled Miu Mius that carried me through my second summer at Vogue…they’re all worn to bits, but I’ll never throw them out.”
“The wandering, definitely. Because I’m looking for things that are either innovative or beautiful or cool or just new, often the best thing to do is get a little lost. It’s something that I never let myself do back at home. There’s really no better way to see a city than by walking its streets and shopping its shops all day long (sometimes I’m on my feet for eight hours). It sounds cliché, but you never know when and from where inspiration will strike. Just yesterday in Copenhagen, I found the craziest flower shop. It was like a bazaar, with birds in cages and a very fat, green pheasant roaming free. I’m looking for spring/summer inspirations right now, so stumbling onto this one was great luck.”
“A fresh pedicure and loose-fitting pants are a must. I’m very casual when I entertain––my apartment and back garden are so informal, I sort of feel silly wearing anything but sandals when I’m home, and most of the time I’ll just go barefoot. I figure that if I’m comfortable then my guests will be, too. As for secrets, I’m a firm believer in cooking what you know when you’re throwing a dinner party.”
“Minimalism and comfort. I want to wear clothes that reflect a balanced mix of what’s happening in fashion right now (hence the minimalism), and in my life right now (hence the comfort; working as I do, it’s best my clothes not be too fussy). Conveniently, these two things often go hand-in-hand.”
“Three things. The open sky: There are no high-rise buildings in my neighborhood, which means shorter shadows and a lot more sun on the sidewalks. The food: At Caputo’s on Court Street you can buy fresh mozzarella from an Italian man who’s been making it by hand for nearly fifty years. ‘37 years in Brooklyn, 15 in the old country,’ he’ll tell you. And, lastly, Prospect Park: Its grass is always greenest to me.”
“To be fair, I only spent one week on the farm. But yes, it was totally refreshing, and one of the best experiences I’ve had to date. I laughed more than I had in months during that very short period of time (mostly at myself––the farmers who I stayed with had a terrific sense of humor, particularly about the fact that a fashion girl was traipsing around their organic homestead in ill-appropriate clothes weeding leek beds and chasing chickens for slaughter). The work was so physically challenging, and the dirt got everywhere (everywhere), but I loved it. Friends will confirm: I’m a nature girl at heart. Plus, I’d get to finish every day with a communal dinner made entirely from food that the farmers had grown, and that I’d helped to harvest. It was just delicious.”
“’Temptation” by New Order.’"
