Designer, Tailor, Writer
Hello, thank you for visiting ♡
I’m Nana, and I was born and raised in the center of Tokyo, Japan, during the economic bubble of the 1980s and early 1990s. Although there were abundance of things available in Japan at the time, I rarely found clothes that fit me well and matched my taste at the same time. At one point, I realized that making my own clothes was faster and more fulfilling than searching for clothes I liked.1 Sewing satisfied my basic needs—mentally and physically. Little by little, I started making all of my clothes (except knitwear and seamless garments).
I moved to NYC as a teenager and Brooklyn has been my home since 1996. In the 2000s, I designed and made several costumes for recording artists based in NYC before exploring different career paths to broaden my perspective (and to secure a stable income). I also sold ready-to-wear clothes under the label “YNC by NNY” and “Yn Couture by Nana N. Yoshida” at physical stores located in downtown New York.
I have occasionally kept journal entries about my neighborhood and fashion trends in Brooklyn. These stories became the basis for my published book, Designing in Brooklyn, New York: 20 Years of Fads, Fashion, and Social Change, 1997–2017. On this blog, I write stories not covered in the book, current issues, my experience growing up in Japan, and some other things.
You can reach out to me if you have any questions ♡
Xoxo,
Nana
1 Part of the reason was the sizing system in Japan. You can read more about this in the introduction section of the aforementioned published book.
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Nana N. Yoshida
Nana N. Yoshida is a designer, tailor, and writer. She began making her own clothes as a teenager in Tokyo and moved to Brooklyn, New York, at 18, where she continued to develop her own approach to design and dressmaking. As a costume designer, she has also designed and created garments for recording artists in the music industry.
She later published a photography book combining her clothing designs with her writing on fashion trends and social change in Brooklyn over two decades. In 2018, she was selected for an ArtTable Fellowship in the Costume Department and Theater Collection at the Museum of the City of New York. Drawing on her bilingual skills, she worked as a researcher for a Japanese organization in New York City from 2019 to 2025, producing weekly journalistic reports. She holds an MA in Arts Administration from Baruch College.
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