Candid Kayne

(NEW YORK) Los Angeles-based designer Jenni Kayne is young and spirited with a fierce eye for detail and a breezy, California-girl mentality. With a plethora of projects in the air, we caught up with Kayne to chat about her New York pop-up shop, booming shoe line and down time with her precocious baby boy! 
EMILY POPP

You've got a tremendous amount going on! How has your experience been with the pop-up shop in New York?
We opened a pop-up store after Fashion Week, and it stays up until November 30. I've never done this before, and so it was very experimental. We went in, found a space and gave it a new paint job. It definitely looks like a pop-up, but it also has a lot of elements like my store in West Hollywood. With so many spaces available for rent now, I thought it was a fantastic time to do this.

And can you discuss a bit about your shoe line?
I launched the shoe collection for fall in stores right now, and it's my first shoe line on my own. I'm excited! They are made in Spain and they are really doing well. I definitely think the economy is turning around. People are shopping a lot in our store in West Hollywood, and I think it's a great time to test out new markets and do special little things like pop-up shops. It's always important to be creative about how you generate business. 

Since your Spring 2010 collection, has any other source of inspiration caught your attention? Traveling down any new avenues?
No real new avenues yet. I had really beautiful shoes for spring that are diong well, and the collection was inspired by the '90s and this super clean feeling. I've been putting things together in a way that I don't think people have been dressing in a while. Everyone has been mixing things up, but I am interested in pairing like fabrics together. I would pair cream leather shorts with a cream leather top. I think people are going to start dressing like this-matchy-matchy, but in a cool way. I'm always inspired by the '80s and '90s because I'm a child of these decades.

What is one of the first things you look forward to doing when you visit New York from Los Angeles?
La Esquina! There's nowhere in L.A. where you walk through the kitchen to go eat your dinner in a basement.  

And what do you look forward to returning to in L.A.?
I look forward to going back to my car, house and my sense of control.

You have a baby boy and so I know may not have much in the way of unwinding! Have you been able to catch a moment?
I went to the pumpkin patch with my son the other day! In terms of unwinding, we go to Palm Springs on the weekends. Mostly, we hang out at home. Happy early Halloween!

Happy early Halloween! Any costume plans for your family?
Thanks! Oh, definitely. It all started with this lion costume I bought my son, Tanner. He is the lion, my husband is the scarecrow, my sister is the tin man and I am going as Dorothy.

Did you have a hand in making any of these costumes?
Well, my sister's tin man costume is a silver dress from my spring collection. I bought Tanner's costume and my husband's scarecrow outfit is Band of Outsiders. And our dog will be Toto! So we've got the whole Wizard of Oz cast.