Tracey Asai earned her bachelors degree in Product Design from The College of Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Shortly after graduating, she moved to New York City. Within a week from her arrival and only $400 in her pocketbook, Tracey landed her first assistant design job for a knitwear company. Ironically, knitwear was the only textile course she did not take at school. She learned everything technical about knits on the job, but quickly realized the value of her design fundamentals education: A foundation that would one day have her running her own business. Today, Tracey and her husband Billy reside on the Upper West Side with their cat Sarabel.
Over the next few years, Tracey’s design experience ranged from dress design, outerwear, prints, and eveningwear. After four years working in New York's Garment District, she began her own private label freelance business designing one-of-a-kind pieces for dancers, actresses, writers and other creative people. She often used their work as her source of inspiration. Grammy winning jazz vocalist, Cassandra Wilson, was among her most notable clientele. Tracey designed for three of Ms. Wilson’s tours, including performances at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Town Hall and her Grammy dress. She received additional press in Jazz-Iz magazine for a concept she pitched to Blue Note Records which was used for the cover of the "Traveling Miles" CD package.
In the early part of 2000, Tracey was accepted into the Accessory Design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. She was enrolled part-time while working for Peter Fox Shoes flagship store in Soho. After two Footwear Design & Pattern Making classes, armed with a new footwear portfolio, Tracey set out to seek work as a shoe designer. When she realized most of the opportunities would have her traveling overseas more than 6 months out of the year, being the mother of a precious kitten, that was not a desirable option. In 2004, a year after she was a bride herself, Tracey founded Tracey Asai Designs, LLC and has been in domestic corporate bliss ever since.
Tracey's one-woman exhibitions have included a rainwear show of fanciful silk laminated raincoats and two hand painted shoe shows showcasing her painted designs on the beautiful silk satin shoes of Peter Fox. She has been recognized for her work in magazines, newspapers, wedding blogs, and other wedding websites. Her business continues to grow, selling her wedding flip-flops to every state in the USA and a growing list of countries abroad, among them the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and most recently France, and The Netherlands. The very first shoe Tracey designed, a tribute to her bartending days, she calls the "Martini Mule", was purchased by the Shoes Icon Museum in Moscow Russia.
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