Lan Jaenicke

The San Francisco-based fashion designer takes us inside her home and atelier.

By Lindzi Scharf

Photography by Kate Jones

Clothing designer Lan Jaenicke tried to rebel against the family business. She majored in math, chose advertising as a profession, and moved from China to England to New York. However, she soon found, “I was more interested in dressing for work than the work itself,” Jaenicke says with a laugh, perched by the window of her Northern California flat.

Jaenicke eventually shifted focus to her true passion and attended Academy of Art University in San Francisco. By 2008, she launched a small line of seven cashmere jackets and coats.

“I wanted something comfortable and luxurious,” she says, explaining she’d just given birth to her son Alex at the time. “When we’d go to the park, I’d put down my coat on the grass as a blanket, so my baby could climb. People would say, ‘You put your cashmere jacket down on the grass? It’s going to have a grass stain.’ No. It’s tested. It’s proven. It’s resilient. You can literally abuse it and nothing will happen to it. I started the cashmere line like that, which is what I needed during that time. Those pieces are still part of our signature collection and are still our best-selling.”

Over the last thirteen years, Jaenicke’s company has grown to include her own 1,500-square-foot atelier and boutique on Jackson Street in San Francisco. The 1860s brick and cast iron building, which once housed the original Ghirardelli chocolate factory, includes Jaenicke’s silk, cashmere, and linen ready-to-wear pieces. She also creates custom designs, with the experience being likened to London’s iconic Savile Row in the 1920s.

But for a long time, Jaenicke resisted the urge to pursue design — because she felt like her mother had already conquered that territory. 

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

“My mother was a ballerina turned fashion designer,” Jaenicke says. She shares that her mom, Li Yanping, danced until she was thirty before attending college and switching careers. “She became the first fashion designer in China and she’s had an amazing career. Everything she did, she was the first one to do it.”

Jaenicke was inspired by her mother but wanted to forge her own path. “I was being rebellious,” she admits. “Growing up, I always went to art classes and learned to paint. I also did these fashion design and art competitions and I did well. It was expected and predicted that that was going to be my path.”

While attending boarding school in England as a teenager, she applied to various art schools and was accepted, but she says, “I remember seeing the art schools and feeling like, ‘That’s not really my style.’ It was funky. I wasn’t attracted to that world at the time. I decided to do something completely different.”

She graduated from University College London with a degree in math and applied for jobs in New York while working in Hong Kong for a short time. Jaenicke then landed a position at an advertising firm in New York City. “It was just a job,” she says. “I was in my early twenties. I wanted to experience the city more than [being interested in] the job itself. I would have taken any job.”

THE BUSINESS OF FASHION

Eventually, Jaenicke knew it was time to make a change. In 2002 she moved to San Francisco, where she debated attending business school, but she says she realized, “I didn’t want to be in the business world and climb the corporate ladder. It wasn’t inspiring.”

Instead she got her MFA in fashion, merchandising, and design while getting married and having a baby. “I launched my line in 2008 and I had my baby in 2007,” Jaenicke says. “During that time, I was concepting and developing things and making things at home, and then I had a product line together in 2008 and I showed it to a local boutique, and that’s how it got launched.”

Jaenicke acknowledges it was a lot to balance at once. “I remember being exhausted,” she says. “But I wanted to take care of my baby myself rather than giving him to grandparents or nannies. I was home with him and at the same time, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to start something.” So she did.

Jaenicke’s line was initially carried at boutiques on both coasts. She held trunk shows to connect with customers, followed by popup shops. She then opened her own atelier. “I didn’t want to have a shop, but I did need a workspace,” she says. “I thought it would be great to show people how we’re making things so they can see the behind-the-scenes of how things are made and how we’re making each piece. That’s how the idea of an atelier was born.”

THE CHALLENGES

Jaenicke’s flourishing business features cashmere outerwear, kimono tops, bottoms, and dresses, as well as cotton, linen, and silk pieces that include blouses fashioned from vintage silk from her mom. Jaenicke’s hard work has paid off, but she does have one regret. “I wish I spent more time with my son [when he was] growing up,” she says. “I was traveling so much. That’s the balancing [act] between motherhood and a demanding career. It was challenging, but I think back… My mom actually did the same thing and she was a traveler herself.”

Jaenicke has since had honest conversations with her mother. “She’s asked me, ‘Do you wish that you spent more time with me? I feel so bad,’” Jaenicke recalls. “I’m like, ‘No. Because you were busy, I became independent. I actually wanted to thank you for being the way you are and going after your dreams. You set a good example for me, so I can do what I love to do.’”

Even so, it’s an internal struggle Jaenicke battles when it comes to her own son. “As a mother, you always feel like, ‘I wish I could do more for my kid,’” she says. “I always kind of hide [the guilt] within myself.” She pauses. “Or talk to my therapist about it.” She laughs. “But there isn’t any shame or any guilt. I do have guilt, but you shouldn’t. This is the choice you made.”

Jaenicke continues, “You want to set a good example for your kid. We’re all learning. We can’t do everything perfect. We’re doing the best we can at the time. We’re learning from our kid, our kid is learning from us. We’re all on this journey to learn about ourselves. It’s important to be open and forgive ourselves.”

LOCKDOWN LIFE

For Jaenicke, there proved to be a silver lining to the pandemic. “It definitely was a challenge,” she says, “but it also was a good opportunity for me to see what’s more important.” She was able to spend more time with her son, who is now 14.

Without her hectic travel schedule in the mix, Jaenicke also used the time to focus on other aspects of her business. “This forced me to focus on the design itself,” she says. “A lot of businesses didn’t survive. I’m proud that we survived this challenging time.”

She attributes some of her success to the fact that her son is an independent teenager, which allowed her to maintain her workload. “Even though our shop was locked down for two months, I was working inside,” she says. “Then I have an assistant, so we would alternate. Two collections were developed during that time. We’re constantly making things, developing. We put our heads down and did what do.”

ZERO-WASTE DESIGNING

Jaenicke focused on creating what she calls “zero-waste designs.”

“Nothing was cut off,” she explains. “I used more of the strings and the ties to make silhouettes and shapes, so it’s a universal size — anyone can wear them. I also created shape by where you place the ribbons and elastics and buttons instead of cutting it off to create shapes. That was a very ancient technique of making clothes as well. I did some research. A thousand years ago in Japan or China, they didn’t cut up things. They had this beautiful fabric and then they would make things as is — and used ties and buttons to create shapes and silhouettes. It’s versatile because years later you have the same fabric and you can create something else with it.” 

Toward the end of 2020, Jaenicke released a collaboration with textile designer John Robshaw. “At the time, I wanted to do something with prints,” she says. “With development, there’s a lot of waste if you start to develop your own fabrics and the back and forth sending samples, all of these logistics. Instead of making my own prints, I thought of making something with existing material. I immediately I thought of him, so I reached out and said, ‘Send whatever you have in your stock and I can work with it.’”

Together they created a beautiful collaboration using his quilts and prints with Jaenicke’s signature Japanese silk grosgrain ribbon. “We sold out within two weeks,” she says. “Again, this was no waste. It was his existing fabric and then no fabric was cut off. I didn’t want to see anything cut off or wasted in a landfill. The pandemic emphasized that for me. I used to do all these shapes and like any designer, you would cut it off and it would be a lot of fabric wasted. So now that I focus on that — not to have any waste. You just change your way of thinking.”

Jaenicke says the key to navigating this past year — and to surviving life — is to alter your mindset and approach. “There’s struggle, there’s stress, but it’s how we deal with it,” she says. “It’s how we deal with the stress and how we deal with the struggle. When you go through that, you appreciate [success] even more so. It’s like, we had this huge hike, but then after you go to the peak, you feel satisfied and accomplished.”

HOW SHE LIVES…

“We can walk around,” Jaenicke says on a tour of her San Francisco home. “I wanted to be in touch with nature. I live in a flat in the city and I don’t have outdoor space, so I got this…” She gestures toward a round table.

HOME OFFICE WITH A VIEW

She keeps a table with a vintage decorative object by a window in her home for whenever she wants to work overlooking the city. “That makes me feel closer to nature and to light,” she says. “I mostly work at the atelier. We’re open five days a week and the other two days I’m working from home. If I’m working on a design piece that needs focus, I’d do that here.”

FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS

“I’ll go to the flower market weekly to bring blossoms into the rooms in my home and also the atelier,” she says “I’ll do a whole day of flower arrangement. That really is a mood-booster for sure.”

TATAMI ROOM

“I’m constantly changing the rooms to have a different look,” Jaenicke explains. “I recently did this room. It was my study, but every year, we have a family home in Japan and we go to meet up with my parents and spend some time there. It’s nice. During the pandemic, I haven’t seen my parents for over a year. Last time I saw them was last February. I went to Japan to visit them. So I really miss that, and also the connection with our families. I couldn’t go physically, so I thought, ‘I can bring Japan to me,’ so I did this tatami room. I brought tatami mats into the space. We started eating dinner there and then we watch TV or read books or I do yoga in there too and meditate. And then in tatami, you sit on the floor instead of sitting on a chair. When you’re sitting differently, you feel different, and I feel like I’m back in Japan with my parents.”

HER PARTNER

She occasionally collaborates with her partner Anthony Perliss — although mostly for fun. “I’m a creative person, so naturally I’m attracted to a creative person,” she says. “He’s a creative person, too. We’ve been doing some collaborations in terms of the artwork together.” She also collaborated with him on a gala gown for Yuan Yuan Tan, the principal ballerina at the San Francisco Ballet, in honor of her twenty-fifth anniversary with the dance company. Perliss had created a peony ink painting, which was hanging in Jaenicke’s atelier at the time. Tan loved it, so Jaenicke offered to have it painted on her dress. “She was like, ‘Really? Can that be done?’” Jaenicke recalls. “My mother actually did that when she was the designer; she did a lot of handpainting to all her dresses. She worked with an artist, so I was very much inspired by that, and the clothes is a piece of art itself. So that’s what we did and it was beautiful.”

ARTWORK

“This is the artwork we’ve been painting,” Jaenicke says of collaborating with Perliss, a winemaker by trade. “We’re just having fun and doing some calligraphy, some Chinese paintings with ink.” She learned to do calligraphy growing up in China. “For every kid, it’s part of our class, and my parents even more so emphasized it. They had a tutor for me and had me go to extra classes to learn calligraphy. You basically sit there and write in ink. It’s like practicing piano. You hate it at the time, but then afterwards you really benefit. The more you do it, the more you can enjoy the art in itself and the whole experience and the smell of ink.”

INK PAINTING

She’s come to truly appreciate ink as a result. “Every stroke is different and it’s so spontaneous,” she says. “How it lands on the paper and depending on how you drop it or how much water you [use]. It captures that moment of your life. It’s beautiful and it’s such an ancient art form where I’m from and very much rooted in that culture.”

LAMP

“We actually made it ourselves,” Jaenicke says of a repurposed lamp she created with Perliss, who owns and operates Perliss Estate Vineyards. “It’s a hundred-years-old wheel hub. We wired it and put a shade on it. That was COVID creation.”

CALLIGRAPHY PAINTING

“This is a piece from when I first went abroad to the U.K.,” she says. “One of our family members is an artist and then he did this calligraphy for me. In translation I think it means, ‘When you have so much knowledge, everything’s going to be open to you. You just know.’ I’ve always had it. It’s always near my desk or above my desk. In all the places I’ve been. That’s been with me for a long time.” 

THE RUG

“I brought it with me from my home in Beijing,” she says. “It’s a 100 percent silk. So it’s super smooth, but it’s durable. It’s probably like 30-40 years old. When things are well made with good materials, it lasts. I intend to pass it down to my child and his family.”

HER SON

“He’s one year older than my business,” she says. “So he’s almost 14. He’s very much independent. Sometimes too independent, like needing his own space. I have to drag him out to be social with us.”

GAME ROOM

“This place is really cool,” Jaenicke says. “I play Chinese chess and games with my son here. We recently started playing mahjong, which happens at another table. But this is our game table. It’s nice bonding time with him. I don’t play any video games with him, so this is my game room for him.”

DINING ROOM

“This is our dining room,” she says. “I used to do calligraphy here. And that piece is my design. I always have it hanging there. We have dinners here. We always make a point of having dinner together. With candlelight when I remember.”

DRESSING LOUNGE

“I call it a dressing lounge,” she says. “I stay in that room for a long time — to put lotions on and get dressed or read something. It’s the me time, we call it. I’ll take as long as I want to. I started doing tai chi during this time, which is good, and more of a mental exercise than physical. If you think on a higher level, you’re like, ‘This is okay. It’s not a big deal.’ It’s more mental than physical. It’s all in our head. It’s all up to how we think and then taking the time to do something you enjoy. It’s important. It makes you happy and all the other things can wait.”

VANITY WITH MAKEUP

“This is my dressing lounge room,” she says. “I usually sit by the window with all my makeup. I’ll spend hours…” She pauses. “Maybe not hours — maybe like an hour here. … I have so many [rituals] and I feel like I don’t do them well enough. Only lately, I [thought], ‘Oh I need to take better care of myself because I was so intense for a long time — not just with the work but the stress when you have your business and you have all these — like rent and sales — all this real stuff you have to figure out.” With things seemingly returning to some version of normal, Jaenicke says, “I feel a little less stressed, and I’ve been taking care of myself better. I do believe in taking time to yourself.”

HER WARDROBE

“I have a small wardrobe — as a designer,” she says. “I used to have so much. I have everything stored away or given away. I don’t buy anything. I just wear my own designs. The only thing I will look around [for] is vintage clothes. Just because they’re so well made. … I love a vintage sweater or jacket. When something is robust, you can shape it into your own lifestyle and it’s a collaboration between yourself and the past.”

VINTAGE FURNITURE

“I love vintage furniture as well,” she says. “This desk is special to me. This was my parents’ desk. It’s very long — they used to sit next to each other. I thought it was so sweet. And this used to be lacquered with dark lacquer paint. I actually had a woodmaker strip the paint and reveal the original wood.”

VINTAGE CLOTHING RACK FOR PAINTINGS

Jaenicke also uses a vintage clothing rack for her artwork. “I actually use it for hanging paintings or drying things,” she shares. “We try to repurpose things. That’s the point. If something is well made and has good materials, it has so many lives. Maybe in its last life it was a coat rack, but this life it could be a painting hanger. It’s like — a person has a soul. If you are a solid person, you’ll have many careers, many lives, you can do so many things. Each object is like a human itself. It has a soul.”

HER ATELIER

Her home away from home — her boutique — also features an atelier where the clothing is actively made. As a result, she says, “We’re able to offer more service. For example, people can try on a jacket. Most people fit the standard size, but sometimes you need a little bit of tweak to make it perfect. Each piece is an investment piece. It’s made for you and it’s well made for you and you can have it for decades to come. And sustainability-wise, it’s also important to have something that is lasting — rather than things that go into a landfill.”

A TASTE OF SAVILE ROW

“I wanted to have a real working space,” she says of her unique shop, which has been likened to Savile Row in London. “You come into our shop and you see how we’re sewing at the same time. Then there’s the interaction between the designer and the customers. I have these real conversations and I’ll fit for them and then we alter accordingly. Sometimes we do custom as well.” 

AN OLD WORLD APPROACH

“It’s a unique experience, very much like the old world,” Jaenicke says. “Unfortunately, a lot of that is lost in these modern days. Everything is so much of a fast-fashion trend. I just feel like it’s so consuming. You can never catch up with what’s the latest. It’s exhausting. It feels like you’re a slave to the trend instead of the other way around. The garments are supposed to serve you.” 

CANDLES & PERFUMES

Her boutique carries a variety of different candles and perfumes including one she created herself. “I love ink and the smell so much, I actually developed a perfume called Ink,” Jaenicke says. “We launched at the end of 2019. I worked with a perfumer — my partner’s friend was in the perfume industry. He helped me develop this fragrance. We went back and forth for a year, sending samples, and then eventually we got this. It’s all natural and it’s all base notes and I actually bottle them myself in the atelier. It’s handmade. Every time I put that on, it evokes an emotion. It’s hard to express it in words, but when I smell it, I’m in the zone. I can be creative.”

HER DESIGNS

“I love outwear, especially in San Francisco,” she says. “It’s always cold outside. You can wear leggings or yoga pants and then you put on a chic coat. It’s a great cover-up. You can have tea or meet with friends. It’s a very practical piece.”