Veganism has been the talk of the town for quite sometime now. People are turning vegan not just for fitness and religious purposes but to protest against animal cruelty too. And aside from people adopting the vegan diet themselves, they are also looking for brands that have an inclination towards veganism.
Despite all this, you can still count the number of Nepali vegans you meet in your lifetime on your fingers. And it’s very out of the norm and quite intrepid for a Nepali brand to adopt veganism.
Cue in Teyang, a vegan-clothing brand situated in Baber Mahal Revisited. Although it was launched three years ago, it only went vegan a year ago. Tenzing Yangkyi, owner of Teyang, reveals that she herself has been vegan for quite sometime and the decision to make Teyang a vegan brand was something she had been thinking of since it’s inauguration.
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“I really wanted to make clothes that promote sustainability, ethical fashion, and animal compassion. Many people turn a blind eye to the fact that the clothes that they are wearing aren’t always prepared in the most humane way possible,” she says.
Teyang works under the concept of ‘minimal and basic fashion’. They have timeless, chic and elegant clothing pieces that work for people with all body types and styles. Think of semi-formal and formal blouses and shirts made of cotton, organic satin and other organic materials and threads. They avoid any style or pieces of clothing that overcrowds the outfit and instead focus on form fitting and mature and official silhouettes.
Teyang was an accident of sorts. Yangkyi, a fresh Fashion (BA) graduate from The University of Northamptom in England was not planning on staying long in Nepal. She was very keen on starting her postgraduate studies abroad but somehow Teyang happened and, when it got positive response from buyers, she decided to stick to it.
“That came as a complete surprise to me. I didn’t expect it to do well but it quickly grew from a small project to a brand and I just couldn’t abandon something that held so much promise. Plus it had, by then, made a place in my heart. So I stuck to it and I don’t regret that,” she says.
When questioned if the brand’s products have undergone a price shift after it went vegan, Yangkyi doesn’t answer in the affirmative. Yes, the prices of some products may have gone up but that isn’t because of their vegan base. It had more to do with the fact that Teyang is now using better quality materials, had moved into a more expensive workplace, and has more employees than it did before. Yangkyi believes that the price factor should not be an excuse for not using cruelty free products.
As of now, Teyang is in a good place, both morally and financially. It is still sticking to Yangkyi’s ideals of being an economically independent and sustained brand. Many people know about Teyang through just Instagram and Facebook and, for now, Yangkyi is satisfied with the brand being exclusive and not too mainstream but she does intend to expand it in the years to come and change that.
