This NYC-Based Brand is Here to Help you find your lost pattern

Known as 'the House of Silk', Hangzhou was once one of the seven capitals of ancient China, acquiring its great status through the city’s foreign trade in silk, porcelain and tea — a history encompassing thousands of years of development. In the birthplace of the globally-loved material, traditional craftsmanship continues to thrive, paving the silk road to success for this NYC-based brand.

FinTech Executive turned Fashion Entrepreneur, and now, Co-Founder of Lost Pattern NYC, Yong Wang, speaks to us in the language of silk, and lets us into the vibrant universe he shares with his business partner, Cata, and celebrates with the world.

How did Lost Pattern acquire its name and what is the brand's origin story?

Cata is the real star here — she’s a designer based in China. We went to college together and became friends, so we’re very close and we trust each other. I love what she creates, I believe in her vision, and she’s just wonderful. As she’s a designer, she came up with the name. When she started designing different patterns, she wanted to honor her memories — an impression of the past. Whether it was a journey, like her trips to Madagascar and New Zealand, or a book she read, or something more personal, like our “Camellia” [collection], which grow in her grandfather’s garden. All these memories became patterns in her mind. They’re lost in the past, but instead of letting them go, this was her way of documenting them and creating a visual diary — through her drawings and illustrations. Lost Pattern was born to honor those memories.

Why silk and why accessories? 

The brand vision is about wanting to make a piece of luxury. Silk is considered a luxurious good, which we love, but because of our supply chain in Hangzhou, China, we are able to maintain the good quality but sell it at an affordable price. When the clients purchase our product, we want them to completely be themselves. People ask us, «oh, how should I wear this scarf?» However you like is the answer, whichever way you do it is the best way. I know many brands want to embrace diversity, and most of them are very honest. We really want to embrace everyone’s identity, everyone’s storytelling, everyone’s expression. You can use a silk scarf or accessory to express yourself, whether it’s your emotions, your identity, or your mood. 

It has to start with a passion. You have to like what you sell and what you create. We think silk merged with accessories is very timeless and versatile in style. You can create a lot of styles with just one accessory — and it’s seasonless. In today’s world, we wear clothes for just a season and throw them away; it’s a lot of waste. We feel like a silk accessory can last a long time and it’s always very classic. After a few years, you can still use it and it’s overall, better for the environment. It’s very on-brand with the sustainability concept. We also found that in the market, there were more traditional and expensive silk options. We wanted to redefine silk to be fun, modern, and for everyone. That’s our purpose. That’s why on our silks, the patterns are very playful and youthful, and we have different shapes (like the ultra-popular skinny ones!)

Was choosing to craft the company's silk in Hangzhou an immediate and obvious decision, given that the location is the home of silk and acquired a distinct symbolic identity over many millennia?

Hangzhou has thousands of years of silk-making history. We are redefining silk but we also want to simultaneously honor its heritage. Although the patterns and how you wear it can be modern, the core in silk itself should be honored. 

What is the process of crafting your silk over 7,000 miles away from where your business is based like; how do you source and settle on the craftspeople and the origins of your materials, and how do you watch over a crucial aspect of production from a distance?

The edges of our scarves are traditionally hand-rolled by aunts and grandmas in Hangzhou. This takes two-to-three hours, so they do three or four a day. They all have family obligations — they cook at noon, pick up their grandkids from school — so we encourage them to work from their own homes. They love that they don’t have to come to a factory. Cata is based in China and we have a team there. They visit Hangzhou to manage the supply chain and to make sure everyone along the supply chain is doing the right thing and is happy. 

In the market, I see that many people transitioned towards machine-hemmed edges, so they got rid of the [hand-rolled technique]. For us, that’s the essence of silk-making, so we really wanted to keep that. That’s also where the expertise is, and we want to keep that. We’ve visited the villages [in Hangzhou] and we have a community there, which Cata and the team regularly check in with. 

You have a team in China and a team in New York, and a community in Hangzhou. How did you introduce yourself to the community and form that family and connection that has lasted you and your business?

Communication is very important. Cata is based there and I go there. We want to see them and also, tell them how much our customers like their work, and make them feel like they’re part of the art creation as well. We tell them, ‘this is particularly popular among some people’ and we share our client reviews with them, like, ‘you created this, too, and someone 10,000 miles away in Switzerland saw this piece that you are a part of, and it made her feel so good!’ 

Your products are hand-made out of 100% mulberry silk, free from chemicals and biodegradable. How else do you inspire your customers to adopt a sustainable sense of fashion?

When our clients receive a package, it's kind of a message, right? You see our package is plastic-free, and we provide a reusable box for you to store the scarf and even your makeup. Also, the silk scarf itself, because it's a piece of luxury, it's not fast fashion. Our clients will use it over and over. We don't do seasons. We keep making new patterns, but we also sell them for a long time, like the “Madagascar” one. We don't take it off the shelf and just send it to the trash. So, hopefully, that will be part of our sustainability promise as well. 

How did Lost Pattern embrace a unique approach to silk accessories by taking inspiration from both natural and manmade vistas, the atmospheres and cultures that blend into that, and the lost memories that are then translated into vivid storytelling?

We want to create what we truly believe in, what we truly love, and what the true inspiration is. If you look at our collections so far, from Cata, she has a great love for nature. That also echoes the sustainability aspect of our brand. We should be honoring nature; we love nature, so we prioritize that. We have the “Camellia” flowers from Cata’s grandfather’s garden, “Mist” and “Madagascar”. Cata also likes to illustrate mentions of nature in literature, like the mango tree in “El Amor”. We should co-exist with nature instead of exploiting it. Right now, we pay a lot of attention to the ‘nature’ elements of our design, and we love that. 

In the future, though, I don’t think Lost Pattern should be just one person (Cata). I think everyone has lost memories and stories to tell. This year, we worked with Shantall Lacayo, a Nicaraguan artistic designer and the winner of Project Runway Season 19, for a summer 2022 capsule collection. We invited her to tell her story, so it’s her ‘lost pattern’. We gave her full creative freedom and she created a family story — a “Journey” of family experiences and challenges with her 2-year-old son Franco, who is on the autism spectrum. That is her Lost Pattern story. Cata is just the beginning of our storytelling, but in the future, we would love to work with great artists. We want to be a platform for everyone to tell their stories and in turn, turn their beautiful stories into wearable art.