Breakfast Sandwiches & Fashion Week Pregaming With Kiko Mizuhara

Kiko Mizuhara never stops moving. It’s been one day since her trans-Pacific flight from Japan to New York City, and already she’s had a fitting with Ralph Lauren and gone vintage shopping, the latter of which resulted in her buying the striped sleeveless Eckhaus Latta knit that she’s wearing today. Tomorrow, she’ll bounce from yet another fitting to Ralph Lauren’s Spring/Summer 2027 show, then a concert at Radio City, before flying Thursday to Toronto in time for the midnight premiere of her new film, Vintage Violence, at TIFF on Sept. 12. After that, it’s back to the Big Apple for the U.S. Open. “This doesn't really happen to me,” Mizuhara, 35, says giggling over tea and breakfast sandwiches at Bar Oliver. “Usually, [my schedule is] more chill, but I like it.”

Take her assertion with a grain of salt: As a multi-hyphenate, Mizuhara’s days are anything but slow. On top of modeling, which she’s been doing since she was 16 years old, the American Japanese creative is also an actor and founder of the cosmetics brand Kiiks, and she serves as the creative director for legendary Japanese songwriter Haruomi Hosono. “I’m a Sagittarius rising, so I’m like ‘go, go, go, go, go,’” she says. “When the universe is telling me to go, I just go.”

Mizuhara recently added a fifth job title to her ever-growing list of accomplishments: singer-songwriter. On Sept. 2, she released her debut single, “Feelin’ Wee,” a dreamy synth-pop number that’s so breezy and glittery, you wouldn’t even know it was inspired by a stalker. “He started getting super obsessive with me. It was almost like he thought that I was in love with him too,” she says, her bubbly demeanor turning matter-of-fact. “I thought that was really interesting, how he’s kind of delusional. I got curious about what was going through his head, and I was like, ‘Oh, I guess in his head he thinks that I’m seducing him.’”

Despite the song’s rave reception from fans, the future of Mizuhara’s music career hangs in the balance. She made “Feelin’ Wee” with composer — and her now-ex-boyfriend — John Carroll Kirby, who was also the one who encouraged her to start making music. Without him, it’s hard to imagine where this all goes next. “I don’t really know how to make music, but I know how to have fun,” she says. “If there’s any opportunity, I’m sure I will. But I always want to keep it fun. I don’t want to take it too seriously. If there’s a musician friend that wants to do something with me, I think that will be fun. It has to be like that for me.”

Staying true to her Sagittarian ascendant, Mizuhara also has business to tend to in L.A. next week. But before she leaves New York for a second time, Mizuhara will catch pop provocateur and former castmate Charli xcx’s Music, Fashion, Film tour at Barclays. Mizuhara reflects on their time together in Kyoto filming Takashi Miike’s upcoming untitled slasher film, when she got a front-row seat to the pop star’s relentless work ethic. “Charli was amazing. She’s the best. She was exhausted. I’m like, ‘How do you do this?’ She was touring before the movie was happening and then she did the movie, and I think it was a lot for her,” she recalls. “She’s the kindest, the sweetest, super hardworking, and really welcoming.”

The same could be said about Mizuhara, though she knows rest and relaxation are just as important as the work itself. She confesses to sneaking in a nap before our lunch date — a hack that will definitely come in handy as she navigates the rest of her whirlwind week. That, plus a lot of baths, yoga, and gua shas. “That’s how I’m going to survive,” she says with an easygoing, roll-with-the-punches energy that signals she’s going to be just fine.

Photographs by Jillian Giandurco