Yeohlee Teng is an American fashion designer originally from Malaysia and of Chinese heritage. She received the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for fashion design in 2004. Her work has been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Victoria & Albert, London. [1]
She hails from Penang where she attended St. George's Girls' School. She moved to New York in the 1970s to study fashion at the Parsons School of Design, New York. [2] She has worked primarily in New York City and established her own house, YEOHLEE inc in 1981. [3]
Yeohlee practices sustainable [4] and universal design. She uses zero waste methods to create multi-functional garments. Yeohlee believes that "clothes have magic." She dresses the "urban nomad", a term she coined for her Fall 1997 collection, defining a lifestyle that requires clothing that works on a variety of practical and psychological levels. She is a master of design management and believes in the efficiency of year-round, seasonless clothes. [5]
Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stated that Yeohlee shares the vision of the Victoria and Albert Museum founders to both promote and further the use of newly developed processes within the field. On her views on decoration, Bolton stated that Yeohlee views ornament as intrinsic to their construction and as acceptable only when justified by construction, lending her dresses distinction and refinement while empowering the wearer and facilitating movement. [6]
Yeohlee published YEOHLEE: WORK in 2003, which surveys the 20 years of her practice with essays by prominent fashion, art and design curators and critics. [7]
Yeohlee spearheaded the Made in Midtown [8] project as General Secretary on the board of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and in partnership with the Design Trust for Public Space [9] and Making Midtown YEOHLEE’s collections are designed, developed and produced in New York’s Garment District. Today the store and workroom is located at 12 West 29th Street in the NoMad/ Flatiron District. Yeohlee Teng is on the board of the Municipal Art Society of New York.
Her clothing designs have been creative and unusual right from the beginning of her career in the early 1980s. She believes that clothing is an intimate form of architecture. She has established her name for strong geometric designs and concise functualism. [10]
Exhibitions of her designs have been held for more than 40 years now. Yeohlee's work, often described as "architectural," attracted the attention of critics and professionals in other fields of design. To an extent unusual for fashion designers, her clothes were exhibited as design art in many museums and galleries in the 1990s and early 2000s. Her participation in the group show Intimate Architecture: Contemporary Clothing Design, presented at the Hayden Gallery at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982, won a great deal of favorable attention for her work and was an important factor in the early success of her company. [11] Quoted in the New York Times, designer Issey Miyake said Yeohlee's exhibit "proves that fashion no longer has to be separated from the other design fields. At its best, it is considerably more than a craft. It must represent its time. That M.I.T. has staged this show validates fashion and may inspire students here not to become electrical engineers but engineers of fashion.'' [12]
Donna Karan, also known as "DK", is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in 1944.
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New York & Company, Inc. (NY&C) is an American workwear retailer for women. New York & Company apparel and accessories are sold through a nationwide network of retail stores, New York & Company Outlet Stores and through its e-commerce site. In November 2018 its name was changed to RTW Retailwinds, Inc.
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Willi Donnell Smith was an American fashion designer. At the time of his death, Smith was regarded as one of the most successful African-American designers in the fashion industry. His company, WilliWear Limited, launched in 1976 and by 1986 grossed over $25 million in sales. After Smith's death, his business partner, Laurie Mallet, continued the line with various designers creating collections. Without Smith, the company foundered and due to financial problems and poor sales, WilliWear Limited ceased production in 1990. WilliWear was the first clothing company to create womenswear and menswear under the same label. The accessibility and affordability of Smith's clothing helped to democratize fashion.
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Roy Halston Frowick, known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer who rose to international fame in the 1970s.
Richard Saturnino Owens, known as Rick Owens, is an American fashion designer from Porterville, California.
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place. "A fashion designer creates clothing, including dresses, suits, pants, and skirts, and accessories like shoes and handbags, for consumers. He or she can specialize in clothing, accessory, or jewelry design, or may work in more than one of these areas."
Isabel Toledo was a Cuban-American fashion designer based in New York City. She was widely recognized in the fashion industry for her attention to craftsmanship and the "sophisticated simplicity" of her garments.
Bonnie Cashin was an American designer, she is considered to be one of the pioneering designers of American sportswear. She created innovative, uncomplicated clothing that catered to modern, independent woman of the post-war era through to her retirement from the fashion world in 1985.
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Zero-waste fashion refers to items of clothing that generate little or no textile waste in their production. It can be considered to be a part of the broader Sustainable fashion movement. It can be divided into two general approaches. Pre-consumer zero-waste fashion eliminates waste during manufacture. Post-consumer zero-waste fashion generates clothing from post-consumer garments such as second-hand clothing, eliminating waste at what would normally be the end of the product use life of a garment. Zero-waste fashion is not a new concept - early examples of zero-waste or near zero-waste garments include Kimono, Sari, Chiton and many other traditional folk costumes.
Norma Kamali is an American fashion designer. She is best known for the "sleeping bag" coat, garments made from silk parachutes, and versatile multi-use pieces.
Ashley Fuller Olsen is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, author, and former actress and producer. She began her acting career nine months after her birth, sharing the role of Michelle Tanner with her twin sister Mary-Kate Olsen in the television sitcom, Full House (1987–1995). They also starred in numerous films together.
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The Row was established in 2006 by Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Kaisik Wong was a Chinese-American fashion designer. He emerged from San Francisco wearable art movement in the early 1970s and was active until his death from leukemia in 1990. Wong created avant-garde garments for celebrities such as Salvador Dalí, Anjelica Huston, Elton John, and Tina Turner. His clothing was sold at Henri Bendel, I. Magnin, and Obiko. He is known for his patchwork vest, which was the inspiration for Balenciaga's Spring/Summer 2002 collection.
Chou, Jerome, ed. Making Midtown: A New Vision for a 21st Century Garment District in New York City. Design Trust for Public Space, 2012.
Khoo Salma Nasution, Alison Hayes & Sehra Yeap Zimbulis: Giving Our Best: The Story of St George's Girls' School, Penang, 1885-2010, Areca Books, 2010.
Major, John, ed. YEOHLEE : WORK. Australia: The Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd, 2003.
Sidlauskas, Susan, Intimate Architecture: Contemporary Clothing Design, Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1982.
