WoW Woman in WearableTech and FashionTech | Hellyn Teng, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Wearable Media
Interview by Amanda McIntyre - Chavis
Hellyn Teng is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Wearable Media, a fashion tech studio based in NYC, creating immersive, interactive apparels that senses the world around you. In 2018 studio was selected as one of the top 30 finalists for the LVMH Innovation Award. They are current members at NEW INC, a cultural incubator exploring new ideas at the intersection of art, technology, and design at the New Museum.
What is the main concept behind your project / product and how did you come up with it? Our studio designs immersive, interactive, and futuristic garments that senses the world around you. We see fashion as a new form of communication to explore the world around us, and to elevate our self-expression. From these ideas, we created a ready-to-wear interactive fashion line that is stylish, comfortable, fun to wear, and powered with e-textile technology. We also strive for a sustainable production, including using up-cycled fabrics and biodegradable materials
Our new product line, FUTURE SPECIES, includes our luminous and sound interactive capsule collection, GLOW, which illuminates when it senses sound/music around you. And more recently we launched our biodegradable accessories line, Nothing Lasts Forever, which includes a slim, cross body bag that is made with Piñatex, a non-woven material made from cellulose fibers in pineapple leaves.
When did you begin this venture, and do you have other members in your team? I started the studio about 3 years ago with another co-founder, Yuchen Zhang.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? It took us a good solid 2 years to create our product line, and also to develop our studio practice. We still have a lot to learn, and many challenges to take on. It is hard work, but we really enjoy and have fun with the work that we do, and to see the incremental progress we make encourages us to do more.
What was the biggest obstacle? Because we created a new method on integrating e-textiles into clothing, we had to learn how to work with the new materials, learn about its capabilities, and also to set up production and manufacturing processes for garment production, electronic hardware, and software development.
Aside from production work, as a studio we had challenges on defining our brand, our story, and the DNA of our work. We also had challenges on creating a business model that works for us. Also, both myself and my co-founder have another day job, so it has been challenging for us to create a balance of our time and to work efficiently.
What are your biggest achievements to date? In 2018 our studio was selected as one of the top 30 finalists for the LVMH Innovation Award. We are current members at NEW INC, a cultural incubator exploring new ideas at the intersection of art, technology, and design at the New Museum. In 2019, we opened our first international pop-up store in Hangzhou, China with Taobao (owned by Alibaba), at the Taobao Maker Festival 2019.
What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in the niche you are in? How about being a female founder / entrepreneur? I had to learn how to take on and manage the many roles that come with starting your own studio and also product line. On the product side, I have taken on the roles as a creative director, designer, hardware engineer, software developer, researcher, and learn how to patent our inventions. On the business side, I have had to learn about business and financial management, work with corporate attorneys, marketing and sales, social media marketing, setting up e-commerce, brand and story development. I also had to learn how to work efficiently, time management, and to make quick but wise decisions.
As a female founder/entrepreneur, I do feel fortunate that we started our business at a time where there is more support and communities for female founders, such as WoW. We still have some ways to go, but it is encouraging to see the progress female entrepreneurs before us have made. Also, we are fortunate to be members of NEW INC, a cultural incubator exploring new ideas at the intersection of art, technology, and design at the New Museum, where diversity, representation, culture, and experimentation is encouraged and supported.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? Yes, definitely. I am a strong supporter of the #WomenInTech and women of color in tech movement. Representation of brilliant women in tech is long overdue in an industry that has been overrun by a patriarchal system that is outdated, misguided, and misleading. It is not only time, but also our responsibility to acknowledge the ground-breaking work and foundations that women in tech have built, and it’s influences it has had on future generations of women in technology.
What is the most important piece of advice you can give to all female founders and female entrepreneurs out there? The best advice I received was from a quote by Red Burns, the Founder of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, and my alma mater: “That you are willing to risk, make mistakes, and learn from failure.”
Also, stay positive. Be patient. Learn with an open mind. Experiment. Opportunities will present itself when you are passionate about your work.
What will be the key trends in the fashion tech industry in the next 5 years and where do you see it heading? Sustainable material innovation, and biodegradable textile materials, will be key trends in the fashion tech industry. Technology is advancing where we can be more intimately and seamlessly connected with our smart garments, but we need to consider the by-products and waste it creates, and how we can move towards a sustainable future.
Who are your 3 inspirational women in fashion tech?
It is hard to narrow it down to 3 people as the field has so many brilliant women. I selected below the women who have been my professor, who I have collaborated with, and to all of them who’s work continues to inspire us and innovate in fashion tech industry:
Despina Papadopoulos, designer, strategist and educator, founder of Principled Design, a New York-based systems design and strategy studio specializing in wearable technologies and e-textile solutions.
Sylvia Heisel, fashion futurist and creative technologist at HEISEL, a design lab for 3D printing and experiential fashion focused on sustainable materials, manufacturing and physical computing for fashion and wearables.
Madison Maxey, founder and CEO of Loomia, a company that makes a new form-factor of circuit — a soft circuit system- that can be used to power soft goods.
Ying Gao, fashion designer from Montreal.
Website: https://www.wearablemedia.co/
Instagram: @wearable.media
Twitter: @WearableMediaWM
Linkedin: @Wearable Media
This interview was conducted by Amanda McIntyre-Chavis, Women of Wearables Ambassador in New York, USA. She is the CEO and Founder of LegendFactory, a interactive brand management company and two new tech initiatives: Muzaik, a social media aggregator and Myndfull, a wearable tech company. She is also an active mentor, arts advocate and supporter of various social causes. Based in New York, Amanda is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music & Entertainment (NABFEME), National Association of Professional Women (NAPW), the ELLEVATE Network and Women In Music. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMcChavis.