New York-based Yeohlee Teng has always designed, developed, and produced her entire collection in New York City. She has also prioritized efficiency, sustainability, and circularity – utilizing a zero-waste philosophy to her designs.
It’s this tenacity and confidence that is key to her staying power, and that influenced a next generation of talent. A champion of Made in New York, she has pioneered the Garment District and domestic manufacturing, supporting these local businesses. Her work, which has been displayed everywhere from the Cooper-Hewitt to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a perfect blend of fashion and art that will influence and inspire designers.
To celebrate her Board of Directors Tribute, we heard from some of her colleagues, friends, and supporters on why she is deserving of this award.
Andrew Bolton
the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yeohlee is that rare designer whose technical virtuosity and conceptual complexity has advanced the art of fashion by offering new possibilities for apparel. Her profound respect of materials and her erudite understanding of the dressed body leads her to constantly question the rudiments of clothing. Ultimately, she’s a problem solver whose approach to her craft is at once pragmatic and poetical.
Paola Antonelli
Senior Curator, Architecture & Design Director, Research & Development, The Museum of Modern Art
I have always thought of Yeohlee as “a designer with a compass,” not only because some of her gorgeous garments are actually perfectly round—or cut and constructed through other sleights of geometry—but also because she has always known her own path. Such a quintessential New Yorker! Indeed, she is a pillar of our city’s culture, transcending fashion to connect it with design and architecture, with generosity and aplomb.
James LaForce
Founder/ CEO – LaForce
“As a designer who has stayed the course in her work and never pandered to trends or any part of fashion that didn’t interest her, Yeohlee has, at the same time, been the ultimate team player. She’s always thought deeply and worked hard on behalf of the fashion community, the Garment Center and women in the industry. She teaches and mentors young talent. She looks out for all of us and never asks anyone to do the same for her.
Yeohlee has always stuck to her guns. Everything she designs is purposeful, rigorous, and flawlessly executed. She explores all the ways clothes can function, have power and express meaning. At the same time, it fits, is comfortable and makes you feel cool.”
Marylou Luther
Creative Director, Fashion Group International
“For me, Yeohlee was the first fashion environmentalist. The way she made use of every inch of fabric in her creations, the way she upcycled by using her favorite leftovers to produce something totally new–these were all fashion firsts. Yeohlee is a fashion first.”
Valerie Steele
Director/ Chief Curator – The Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology
“I first saw Yeohlee’s work in the 1985 exhibition at MIT, Intimate Architecture: Contemporary Clothing Design. Yeohlee’s strong focus on function and geometry does evoke the sensibility behind modernist architecture. Her “zero waste” process utilizes every scrap of material, anticipating the growing focus on sustainability. For these reasons, her work has been described as “supermodern” and her clients as “urban nomads.”
Gary Wassner
CEO, Hilldun
“A true visionary, the incomparable Yeohlee Teng’s designs are timeless. You only need to review her catalogue of work over time in order to experience a journey of creativity, individuality and taste. Little she has designed over the course of her long career wouldn’t be as current now as it was then. Not only is Yeohlee a dear dear friend, but also to me she’s been an inspiration in so many ways. Her commitment to bettering the industry, to ethical choices, to principles of sustainability and zero waste, is clear and incorruptible. My respect for her as a designer and a human being is immeasurable.
Renée Price
Director, Neue Galerie New York
“The Neue Galerie Design Shop has proudly carried Yeohlee’s exclusive designs for the past 13 years. We admire the purity and clarity of her work.”
Deborah Marton
Executive Director, Van Allen Institute
“Yeohlee’s work conveys fierce independence and dignity — coquettishness is not part of her design vocabulary. Wearing Yeohlee, you are telling the world, I own my identity and please myself. The Yeohlee woman is open to adventure because she knows who she is. I’ve enjoyed the privilege of being dressed by Yeohlee, and every time it’s a subversive delight. In the end, the sexiest thing is confidence, and Yeohlee has always understood that.”
Susan Scafidi
Founder & Academic Director, Fashion Law Institute
“Yeohlee Teng is a designer’s designer, a futurist grounded in the present, an extraordinary citizen of the fashion community, and a steadfast protector of the world around her, from the Garment District in NYC to an entire planet threatened by climate change. Her work is mathemagical, subtly turning Mobius strips and parabolas into intelligent and adaptable clothing for modern life as well as architectural eveningwear — all while practicing a zero waste philosophy that she developed long before it became a cause célèbre. Both working with Yeohlee and watching her work is a privilege. Some clothing is one-dimensional, designed for a photo; some two-dimensional, allowing a dramatic entrance or exit; some three-dimensional, embracing the form of the wearer in all its angled and curved complexity. Yeohlee’s designs are four-dimensional, projecting a vision through time. ”
Claire Weisz
Founding Principal, WXY architecture + urban design
“The first time I stepped into Yeohlee’s working space I understood what maximizing culture and minimizing waste was all about. She inspires me as an architect and urban designer in her approach to to fashion and urbanism as being about mobility. When Yeohlee says Garment District you know it is about sharing the city.”
