TONI BREIDINGER IS MAKING HISTORY ON AND OFF THE RACETRACK.

BY CAITLIN HAMER

“Growing up in Hillsborough we lived near Sonoma Raceway, which is where I got my start in racing,” says Breidinger, who at 24 years old is already making history. She was just 9 when her father took her and her twin sister, Annie, to a go-karting class, and for the now seasoned racer, it was love at first lap. She started practicing twice a week, then began racing locally and then nationally. When she was 15, she got in her first United States Auto Club (USAC) Midget and began racing on pavement ovals on the West Coast. Three years later, she won the championship and became the all-time winningest female in USAC history at the time with 19 wins.

That same year, in 2017, she graduated from high school and moved to North Carolina to pursue her goal of becoming a NASCAR driver. She built up her resume doing local late-model races and in 2021 finally made her NASCAR ARCA debut at Daytona. This year, she raced in the NASCAR Truck Series and became the highest-finishing female in a debut. But her success isn’t the only reason she’s making waves; Breidinger is NASCAR’s first Arab American female race car driver.

“I don’t really feel added pressure, more like a sense of responsibility to pave the way so other minorities have better opportunity to come up through motor sports,” she says on how she feels about her groundbreaking status. “I take a lot of pride to be able to represent in NASCAR and it’s amazing how much support I’ve received from Arab girls and women.”

She’s also received a lot of support from sponsors, something that is vital in the pay-to-play world of motor sports; without funding, you can’t race, and Breidinger isn’t the only female athlete who has struggled with being underfunded. But she’s now fortunate enough to have brands like Victoria’s Secret, Free People, FP Movement, Pit Viper, Raising Cane’s and Rootly helping her stay on the track. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, last year she added “Victoria’s Secret model” to her resume.

“It’s kind of wild because when I was younger, I used to write in my journal and dream about being a race car driver and a Victoria’s Secret model,” says Breidinger. “The fact that these two polar opposite worlds collided is so surreal.”

Breidinger is happy to see brands like Victoria’s Secret sponsoring women, and in a male-dominated field like race car driving, it’s especially important to have such high-profile support. There are other female race car drivers out there, but apart from Danica Patrick, most aren’t household names. Patrick’s career helped inspire Breidinger; seeing her success helped Breidinger feel like she could race, too. Of course, trailblazing isn’t always easy, and Breidinger does feel that women have to work harder to gain respect in the industry. Add in the fact that there are still people out there who feel that women don’t belong in the sport, and it can make things tough both on the track and off it, she says.

Breidinger has garnered top-notch sponsors like Victoria’s Secret, Free People, FP Movement, Pit Viper, Raising Cane’s and Rootly.

That being said, it’s obvious that Breidinger loves what she does and is having fun doing it. You may have seen her behind the wheel of the No. 70 Hot Wheels GR86 at Sonoma Raceway this past spring in the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup series, and this month, she’ll be zipping around tracks across the country. You can see her in the ARCA Menards Series at Kansas Speedway on the 8th and at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway on the 14th, and on the weekend of the 22nd, you can find her at Florida’s Sebring International Raceway in the GR Cup.

When asked what advice she has for future racers, Breidinger suggests starting simple, finding out what classes your local track has to offer and just getting seat time. “Doesn’t matter what you drive, you need to start somewhere,” she says. Unsurprisingly, she recommends go-karts, noting that it’s a great way to learn fundamentals with low risk. For herself, she’s well past the go-kart stage; she races a Toyota Camry for Venturini Motorsports in the ARCA series, a Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and a GR86 for Nitro Motorsports in the GR Cup series.

Given the nature of her sport, it’s natural that Breidinger experiences a wide range of sensations on race days: excitement, anxiousness, adrenaline, happiness and stress. But there are also all the aspects she loves about racing, especially the puzzle-like details that go into winning, and how competitive it all is. “Being behind the wheel and pushing yourself and the car to the very edge is the best feeling.”

Noted for her impeccably tailored minimalist designs and refined use of natural fabrics, San Francisco–based designer Lan Jaenicke looks to the golden ratio when creating pieces for her coveted collections.

Cashmere and pure silks are signature fabrics, but lambswool, cotton and linen also feature across her coveted separates collection of thoughtfully executed timeless classics: sensuous wrap skirts, sculptural blouses and diaphanous slip dresses imbued with a graceful aesthetic for women who know what makes them look and feel good.

“As a designer, I like to create simple pieces that are flattering on the body, move well and travel well, but I see my line as more of a lifestyle choice, one that allows the personality of whoever is wearing it to shine,” she says. Born in Beijing, Jaenicke moved to England for boarding school and university, but after working in New York, relocated to San Francisco, where — partly inspired by her ballerina-turned-fashion-designer mother but already with an innate sense of aesthetics — she began creating clothing that captured her sense of beauty. In 2008, after graduating from the Academy of Art University with an MFA in fashion, merchandising and design, she launched a small line of cashmere jackets and coats — whose hallmark Stamford is still among her best sellers.

Trunk shows and pop-ups followed. As did an atelier in a historic brick-and-cast-iron building in Jackson Square. Once home to the original Ghirardelli chocolate factory, the space provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Jaenicke’s design process — it’s where she works with her team on new designs and meets clients for custom fittings and alterations — but also serves as a boutique for her ready-to-wear “quiet luxury” cashmere and linen staples.

With a main client base in San Francisco, her work draws collectors on the East Coast too, plus a handful in Europe, thanks to a collaboration with iconic French footwear brand Repetto. Jaenicke created a navy-and-black toe box ballet slipper with the shoe company (the style has sold out, but another partnership is in the works), and with her Presidio Heights lifestyle store Maison, Lan Jaenicke is currently the only Repetto retailer on the West Coast.

“I appreciate anything to do with dance and have loved these shoes since my early 20s. I used to bring so many pairs back from Paris,” she says. “They’re elegant but extremely comfortable, and I don’t want to wear anything else.” Another treasure from Maison with ties to the French capital is her signature INK fragrance, an all-base natural oil perfume that “lingers beautifully.” Developed with a Paris-based perfumer and inspired by Chinese ink, it evokes memories for her of growing up in Beijing. “The medium of ink and paper symbolizes creativity but there’s a scholarly connection between old calligraphy paintings and my childhood, especially as my father is a writer, so the scent takes me back to those days of studying and research,” she says.

Jaenicke’s heritage also informs her zero-waste approach to design. Rather than traditional tailoring — which creates shape by cutting and stitching — she often uses ribbons and ties to sculpt silhouettes instead. “Many materials in China and Japan are handwoven, embroidered and hand-painted, so you never want to cut anything. It’s an ancient way of making clothes that can be repurposed by unstitching and creating something else in the future,” she explains. As she’s a former math major who “loves numbers and logic,” her designs are also premised on a belief in the beauty and power of the golden ratio. “Geometry is all about proportions, but so are aesthetics and beauty. How I decide to shape and construct a piece of clothing is always according to the golden ratio, a hemline in proportion to sleeve length, or the bigger picture of the silhouette.”

Jaenicke’s creations are inspired not only by her heritage, but also by her ballerina mother and writer father.

Similarly, materials choices also adhere to a set of strict values — only the best natural fabrics — and having “bootstrapped from the ground up with no investors” she has complete creative control of the line, so no one can demand she go against them. “I love Japanese grosgrain silk ribbon and Japanese fabrics generally, but source local materials too, including leather from The Hide House in Napa to make my obi belts.” The cashmere is from Jaenicke’s own vertical supply with fibers woven into fabrics and custom dyed. For capsule line ShanFeng (mountain/wind in Chinese, also, the characters comprise the name Lan) she used undyed cashmere, silk, lambswool and cotton to create tops, dresses and skirts in “beautiful pure whites and creams.”

Despite working with a small team of dedicated seamstresses and tailors, Jaenicke says with fewer young people following the profession, these craftspeople are becoming harder to find, something she hopes to change with an internship. “I wanted to re-create the classical concept of an atelier — a space where apprentices can develop skills and understand the importance of creating things by hand,” she says. “It makes us much more aware and in touch with ourselves. It is an art form I’m determined to help keep alive.”

Maison Lan Jaenicke, 3307 Sacramento Street; Atelier Lan Jaenicke, 431 Jackson Street (by appointment). www.lanjaenicke.com