CHICAGO, WE’RE HOME.

September 2026 — Chicago

On September 1, I moved to Chicago.

I brought NAYSHN with me, along with an idea that has been evolving throughout my career: What if design isn’t simply about creating more things? What if design could actually help us live better?

I’ve spent most of my professional life designing things. Clothing. Products. Furniture. Interiors. Spaces.

For years, the job was often about what came next. The next collection. The next product. The next season. The next thing someone needed—or, perhaps more accurately, the next thing we could convince someone they needed.

At 60, I find myself thinking about design very differently.

I’m less interested in more.

I’m interested in better.

That shift became very real when I moved to Chicago. I dramatically downsized my life. Today, essentially everything I own fits inside my studio apartment.

I get a lot of questions about this.

How can you live with so little?

The funny thing is, I don’t feel like I’m living with nothing. If anything, I feel like I’ve created more space for the things that actually matter.

And that has made me start asking a different question:

How much do we really need to live well?

I don’t think the answer is an empty white apartment with one chair in the middle of the room. I love beautiful things far too much for that.

I love furniture. I love clothing. I love architecture, art, ceramics, lighting and beautifully designed objects. I can spend an embarrassing amount of time examining the construction of a jacket or the proportions of a chair.

What has changed is my relationship with those things.

I want things to earn their place.

If a chair occupies ten square feet of my home, it better be a great chair.

If something is hanging in my closet, I want to wear it.

If I’m going to renovate a kitchen, I want every decision to make the space work better—not simply make it look more expensive.

That thinking is becoming the foundation of the next chapter of NAYSHN.

Design your space. Design your life.

It begins with the home.

Through NAYSHN Interiors, I’m interested in creating spaces that are beautiful but also simpler, smarter and more intentional.

Through real estate, I’m interested in what happens before the decorating ever begins: finding the right space, recognizing its potential and understanding what it could become.

Furniture and objects naturally become part of that conversation too. I’m particularly excited about discovering Chicago’s designers, craftspeople and makers—and sharing the people, products and brands I find along the way.

Then there is clothing.

That’s where much of my professional life began, and in Fall 2027, NAYSHN will return to it with something much bigger: a performance-engineered everyday clothing system developed from Chicago.

The philosophy is surprisingly similar to what’s happening inside my little studio apartment.

Do we need more clothing—or do we need better clothing that does more?

That question is going to take us somewhere interesting.

And that’s really why I’m starting the NAYSHN Journal.

I don’t want this to be another page where a company tells you how wonderful its products and services are.

I’d rather talk about ideas.

I’ll share what I’m learning about living with less, designing better spaces, finding great objects, renovating homes, building NAYSHN, developing apparel and discovering Chicago’s design community.

I’ll share brands and products I genuinely believe are doing something right.

And occasionally we’ll talk about something that doesn’t fit neatly into any traditional design category: ourselves.

At 60, I get asked surprisingly often about how I eat, exercise, take care of my skin and stay active. I think those conversations belong here too—not as instructions for how anyone else should live, but as another part of this larger experiment I’ve become fascinated with:

What does it mean to design a life well lived?

I don’t have all the answers.

That’s part of the reason for the Journal.

Chicago represents a new city, a new home and a new chapter for NAYSHN.

There is a lot I want to build here.

So I’ll document it as we go.

The spaces. The objects. The clothes. The people. The mistakes. The discoveries. And hopefully, some very good design along the way.

Welcome to the NAYSHN Journal.

Chicago, we’re home.

— Rafael Soto
Founder, NAYSHN