NEW YORK — On a recent morning amid the din of deals being made or broken over breakfast at The Breslin, Yeohlee Teng was ensconced in a corner booth quietly sketching an idea for her spring collection.
Like pretty much everything she does, the concept involved great thought. “I’ve always been interested in brutalism in architecture,” she said matter-of-factly. “I think it’s an on-trend topic.”
Within seconds, she is referencing Rem Koolhaas’ keynote at the inaugural “Ideas For A New City” festival and a Bernard Tschumi exhibition of exploding red cubes in Paris’ Parc de la Villette to substantiate an idea, which had yet to be executed even though her show today was fast approaching. “I always think, ‘You know what? Why not run up until the last second? I mean, why the hell not, right?” she said.
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A few days later, a model is wearing the coat with sloping shoulders based on a square with circles as armholes, that was inspired by Teng’s take on her breakfast idea.
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“It’s important to think about things. I don’t know why. I just do. Even if you are in a cacophony of opinions, you can still think for yourself – failure to do so is really a crime,” she said. “I value my independence but I’m also quite flexible in a work environment. I regard working as a team effort. However, I recognize that strong leadership is important.”
In her 34th year in business, Teng’s thought-provoking designs have been showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s fashion award, Teng’s collections are rooted in seasonless styles and “zero waste” sustainability and geared for “urban nomads.” A friend from Tengs’ Parsons days recently reminded her of how she was practicing zero waste then, when they threw a James Bond-inspired party. She said, “Don’t you remember you wore a skirt made out of a piece of fabric that was 45 inches by 45 inches? There was, like, no waste.” And in 1997, the Museum of Modern Art’s Paolo Antonelli said of Teng’s urban nomads, “Such a good idea, so appropriate for us, for New York, and for the times we live in. Clothing as shelter. Wisdom of many centuries is transfigured into the clothes.” (MoMA’s Design Store and the Neue Galerie still sell her designs.)
Free-minded as she is, Teng is very much a connector in the Jane Jacobs sense of the word. She was the liaison who introduced her friend Harold Koda to Andrew Bolton. And when Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were first starting out on what has become their studious fashion careers, they spent a few hours with Teng in her atelier. Not surprisingly, her clients include such progressives as Agnes Gund, Susan Grimbilas, Alexandra Herzan and Geraldine Laybourne.
“The clothes are thoughtful, and the people, who put them on, recognize that. I think about them all the time – what they need to do, how busy they are, what they need to accomplish, how little time they have. When you think about somebody, they know that you’re thinking about them. And that’s intellect, isn’t it?” the designer said.
Teng remains dedicated to both concepts and her work. “Basically there is no shortage of products. But there’s a yearning for authenticity, originality and gravitas because basically these days, you know when you are being marketed to and when it’s for real. I’m all for the for real,” she said. So much so, that she is known to find the live performers for her show in subway stations, and even created a runway in the Bryant Park subway station in September 2005 where commuters were surprised to find Farrah Fawcett among the models.
Teng was among the first designers to champion the Save the Garment Center initiative and in 2010, she spearheaded the Made in Midtown as a CFDA board member in partnership with the Design Trust for Public Space. She was part of the brigade that has championed American made products via White House visits and other efforts. “I never felt that it was a small movement. I felt it was a global movement. My goal was to perhaps save some manufacturing in the garment district as a case study for all cities that are aging throughout the world,” she said. “The findings have been very helpful in establishing certain things that have been accomplished by the CFDA and EDC [Economic Development Corporation]. They understood took the vision and ran with it.”
In 2010, she launched e-commerce and opened a 38th Street store to make her design process tangible and to help further local production. Two years ago, Teng relocated her atelier and store to 12 West 29th Street, not far from The Ace Hotel. Committed to strengthening New York City manufacturing, Teng has appealed to the city’s EDC to conduct a survey to track how many consumers buy Made in New York products. “It’s not enough to have these pockets of industry. You have to think about how they connect to each other. If no one figures out the connection to each other, they will die,” she said. “Everything has to have a leader, a mastermind. Otherwise, it’s just little projects here and there – it has no meaning.”
Teng continued, “If they can figure out how to keep the garment district going, it will help with the vitality of the city. Having people make and create products next to you is lifeblood. I mean, grow food on the roofs, make things in the buildings – why be sterile?”
For her own label, Teng is exploring licensing for shoes and bags. Creating a white label with the tech industry to reinvent the manufacturing process is also on her to-do list. And fragrance is “very interesting, because it’s mood altering, it enhances your thinking and can increase your appetite,” she said. International distribution is another priority, as the designer has recently made inroads in Seoul and Saudi Arabia. She is also speaking with potential investors and early next year will name a chief operating officer/chief financial officer, whom she declined to identify. “I need somebody to help me run the business. It’s been a long time of me running the business and designing the collections,” Teng said.
The Malaysian-born graduate of Parsons School of Design came of age at a time in New York City when designers need only walk the blocks they were interested in, find a For Rent sign and inquire within. That was how Teng first landed a cavernous space in the Flatiron District. “I went to the freight elevator and there was a guy in a gray uniform named Mike. He took me up to see Ephraim, who asked me how much I wanted the space for. I offered a ridiculous amount of money, and he said, ‘It’s yours.’ I stayed for 22 years and lived there at one point too. Ephraim made harpsichords and whenever my Merrill machine would break, he would come fix it. The building was at 20th and Fifth. I think the ground floor is now a Michael Kors store.”
More recently, she was intrigued by Yoko Ono’s show at MoMA, which featured a video of the artist wearing a Dior suit and inviting people to cut off a piece, which they could keep. Teng said, “She’s stayed with me for a very long time. When John Lennon died she did this event at a gallery and she gave out keys with a little blood on them. I have one.”
But the designer said she doesn’t relate to Ono as an artist who seems to give a piece of herself. “I think the connection I make with her is, ‘Why not?'” Teng said.