Employees
1
Location
New York, NY
Industry
Athletic Apparel
Founded
2014
Social
Sena Yang has made an art out of activewear.
Yang, who graduated from RISD in 2006 with a degree in Apparel Design, worked for Alexander McQueen, where she learned what it takes to create best crafted and inspired masterpieces. Yang went on to work for many others before starting her own line SENA NYC, and now she’s ventured into the realm of activewear with her Asteria brand—a market not usually associated with modern style and highbrow aesthetics.
Her lifelong interest in fine art dovetails with her family’s work ethic. A first generation Korean, Yang’s parents raised her in Seattle and always encouraged her creative interests while also setting an entrepreneurial example. When speaking to her, it’s clear that this is reflected in the joy she feels from the combination of commerce, art, and research that her brand Asteria is based on.
Another motivation for Yang is the challenge of building a line that requires intense research and problem solving. How does one create activewear—which constantly gets stretched, loosened, and sweated in—that is both fashionable and versatile? “Just because something is colorful, doesn’t mean it’s sporty,” she comments, when asked why activewear tends to be unattractively designed. “A lot of things can seem like afterthoughts and over-designing, but I think design can speak volumes in being simple.”
Below, Yang sheds light on how Asteria constructs such a product, and her inspirations for doing so.
Bond Street
What’s your earliest memory of being wowed by fashion?
Sena Yang
The one I remember is when I was 3 years old, my parents had a lot of Korean period dramas on VHS. I would always comment on all the clothing and accessories, and they thought that was kind of odd for a toddler, but they just kind of went with it. They really nurtured creativity from an early age. In combination of having a lot of music in the house, a lot of karaoke—it being a Korean household—we also went to a lot of Puccini operas. At home, with any movie that I would see, I would try to recreate the clothing I saw using whatever materials I could find, usually paper towels or napkins.
Bond Street
What movies would you recreate?
Sena Yang
Oh man. Must be “The Little Mermaid.” The dress that Arial puts together on the beach, where she finds all that white cloth and kinda wraps it around herself, it was a very avant garde sort of dress.
Bond Street
You were mirroring what Arial was doing.
Sena Yang
Exactly, I was like, if she can do it, then I can too. That’s where my fashion process started—in asking myself, how do you make a sketch come to life?
Bond Street
When did you realize you wanted to be a designer as a career?
Sena Yang
I was lucky to have some construction knowledge from an early age. My grandmother sewed a lot of my clothing as well as her own. She taught me how to hand sew when I was younger, and I taught myself how to machine sew when I was older. I would take old t-shirts and recreate them into new clothing.
Bond Street
Would you wear those clothes to school?
Sena Yang
Yes, I would. I wanted something different, something that wasn’t in “the market,” as we say. From that point on I knew I really liked 2D as well as 3D. I’ve always been painting and drawing from an early age and studied fine art.
Bond Street
What was RISD like? How did it impact your aesthetics, production techniques, and business philosophy?
Sena Yang
Art school was the most obvious route. When I was at RISD in my first foundation year, you get to really explore your different foundational studies, like 2D and 3D and drawing, and I realized that I liked them all put together. It was very natural to go into fashion.
Bond Street
What was the most important lesson you learned while working for Alexander McQueen?
Sena Yang
I got an internship with him my last year of college. I worked on the Widows of Culloden Collection. That was where I learned about everything. I learned that anything and everything is possible. There is no “I can’t,” only “I will.” Whatever needed to happen, we made it happen. Because of my fine arts background, a lot of the work that I did was drawing the embroidery and embellishment design. They would give us things to work off, like Victorian carvings for us to turn into neckpieces, or they would give us a painting to turn into a pattern. It was very educational in learning about research, inspiration, and process.
Bond Street
Process plays a big part in your both your designs and business.
Sena Yang
That is the most important part of all this. That’s where you learn the most, and it’s where the most awesome things come from.
Bond Street
Tell me about the process of starting your line SENA NYC.
Sena Yang
I started it in 2009. I had worked for a contemporary brand for some time before that, where I learned a lot about the business of fashion. Contemporary is a completely different market from luxury. I learned about wholesaling, the masses, what works in the market, how one measures success. All those key business points exist in fashion retail. So I decided to start my own contemporary line called Sena NYC by using all the knowledge I had.
Bond Street
How did your background play into starting a business?
Sena Yang
I come from an entrepreneurial background. My dad has a printing and graphics company in Seattle that he started from basically nothing after coming from Korea. It’s a classic immigrant success story. He worked hard, and that’s what I know—work hard.
Bond Street
How did you raise the startup capital for Sena NYC?
Sena Yang
I created the line from savings and got help from friends and family, it was a lot of support from them in helping me grow it.
Bond Street
Why did you decide to start Asteria, the activewear line?
Sena Yang
I got really burnt out from doing the Sena line. The contemporary market was changing with the rise of more mass-market fashion retailers. It was getting pretty tough and I was just really tired. I knew that I had to take care of myself before I could take care of anything else, so I started working out and getting more into the mind-body connection. Through that process, I realized there weren’t a lot of things to wear. The options are pretty limited. I figured there had to be a solution for more versatile styling options.
Bond Street
What was the research process like in creating the Asteria line?
Sena Yang
Activewear is a very different type of construction. The fabrics are more technical, so there was a lot of research at the beginning. Not just in the fabrics, but also the fit. Everything I make I also test it, so it goes through a lot of trial runs. One of the fabrics is made from recycled biomass, such as crab and shrimp cells, which makes the fabric naturally antibacterial. All my pants are made from black spandex so there’s no funny shine on curves. It requires thinking through the materials, and then creating the right fit for different body types.
Bond Street
Who are your customers?
Sena Yang
Our customer in general is a strong, confident woman with an interest in both fashion and fitness, who cares about versatility and styling, performance and function. When you think about it, at the end of the day, women have a lot of things to do and still need to look great.
Bond Street
What’s your most effective marketing channel?
Sena Yang
It’s definitely Instagram. You can really engage with your audience and create a community on there, which has been really great. I have a lot of supporters in press too, they’ve been really crucial for my business too. Also—the community of fitness professionals that teach at different studios has been very supportive.
Bond Street
What’s your own exercise profile look like?
Sena Yang
I try and do something 4-6 times a week in order stay clear and focused. A combination of Pilates, spinning, yoga, boxing—it’s kind of like a different challenge every time. It’s been really helpful to test all the Asteria stuff while working out, too.
Bond Street
What’s one brand that your admire?
Sena Yang
This might not be a surprise, but I really admire Alexander McQeen. They’re really continuing a strong business even after his passing. They maintain their brand vision consistently, and they’re really the perfect combination of art and commerce.
Bond Street
5 Favorite independent businesses in NYC?
Sena Yang
- Procell
- A-Morir
- Mixpak
- Baohaus
- Apostrophe Agency