Two of the most impressive things about Yeohlee Teng are the pace she works at and her level of precision. For one look of spring 2023, she showed a black tank dress, noting that she made it only the night before. “I just decided that I’d make it and I made it,” she said at her Manhattan showroom.
After all, Teng is a master pattern maker. She started at only 11-years-old in Malaysia, where she learned from a Japanese pattern cutter and began to create her own clothes. “The reason I am the way am about resources is that I grew up on an island only 46 miles in circumference,” said Teng of her zero-waste mindset. Zero-waste has been the ethos of her la bel since she launched in 1981, well before upcycling, eco-friendly, or sustainability were in the fashion lexicon. The majority of her collections are deadstock, which she lovingly refers to as “scraps” and she approaches her design like a puzzle, ensuring nothing is discarded.
Teng’s designs and attention to detail show the most when her palettes are solid. A classic white shirt was tweaked and elevated thanks to an extended Mandarin collar. A pair of smart pants in black had slightly sloping pockets that gave a feminine curve to the boyish cropped cut. Still, one of the most impressive features was in the tiniest addition: a belt. On a denim trench coat, Teng crafted a belt that thickened in the middle of the back to follow the curve of spine, creating the illusion of straightened posture.
