Active Bliss
WEB-EXCLUSIVE: Laguna Beach active wear line founder Amy Yueng has given herself a makeover of joy.
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When most of us think of makeovers, movie montages that involve cosmetics and the removal of offending eyeglasses come to mind. But real life-changing makeovers take time. Amy Yueng’s makeover is one that is happening a little each day and it has nothing to do with makeup.
To explain her transformation that began when she left a 25-year career in the active wear industry to start her own active wear business, Yueng points to her company name: Lila.
“Lila is a word for me that is about that joyfulness and playfulness that we all have mostly as children,” she says of the Sanskrit word, “when you are creative and in this really blissful state, running around with your crayons just making crazy stuff. Part of me breaking off from corporate and starting my own business was trying to find that part of myself again.”
For her latest project, Yueng combined "lila" with the word “rasa,” meaning juice or nectar to capture the essence of the line, Rasa*Lila.
“When the two words are combined together, it’s 'the dance of divine love' - it’s joyfulness and creativity and making it move," she says. "It’s the perfect name for the brand because, for me, it really is a labor of love.”
Rasa*Lila is a line of sustainable active wear with a high fashion viewpoint, poised to launch at a major trade show in Salt Lake City in February. The line incorporates organic and sustainable fabrics as well as prints and colors. And 10% of profits from the collection will benefit the Adopt-A-Native-Elder program, which supports Navajo elders living on reservations - a way for Yueng to honor her Navajo ancestry. The program provides food, clothing, fabric, and yarn to help elders practice a traditional Navajo lifestyle.
But it’s not enough for Yueng to transform the way she does business. She also wants to make over the way active wear is made and the industry as a whole. Yueng has stanchly refused to compromise the commitment she made to developing active wear up to her standards. She uses recycled poly and a printing process that is clean and sustainable with the least amount of waste.
“It really lets me say to other brands, ‘Hey you can do a little better at this.’ These materials are available. We are truly setting the standard for eco-friendly production,” she says. “It’s about making a stand and saying it can be done a little differently and still look beautiful.”
And she knows all of it is bringing her back to the childlike blissfulness, that state of lila.
“That is really the part of me living in Laguna, working at home, being surrounded by nature, and not sitting at a corporate desk," she says, "using your talents to shift the world and just having fun being creative."
