“I really like to look at things that have a bit of age. Places where you know the architecture has some warranty”

A fashion designer’s life is constantly in motion. Born in Asia and now the owner of bicoastal boutique Creatures of Comfort, Jade Lai has tied three locations together—Hong Kong, Los Angeles and New York—to form one concept of home.

As fond of New York as Jade Lai is, there are times when she needs to escape. “I don’t believe in staycations, because I can never really relax,” she says while on an impromptu vacation in Tulum, Mexico. “I either end up being very lazy or feeling guilty that I’m not cleaning my house.” Jade has always been on the move: After uprooting from her native Hong Kong to live in Los Angeles at age 15, she briefly attended boarding school in Seattle for a year before swapping back to Los Angeles’ sunny shores. She then traded California for the ...