For 30 years, Andrew Yu built a $50 million fashion business with a blend of sleek cashmere designs, an eye for sustainability and a knack for QVC marketing, among other things. But his real gift may be for connecting people and connecting with people.
“If you can connect people and help them, that’s what I enjoy,” he says.
No sooner did he and his longtime partner ”” Evan Goldstein, D.O., founding CEO of Bespoke Surgical in Manhattan ”” move to Katonah from New York City and East Hampton with their twin boys in 2020, than they found a neighbor at the door with a bottle of wine, Martha Stewart.
The lifestyle goddess, who stayed for dinner, has become Yu’s “fairy godmother.”
“We just enjoy each other’s company,” says Yu, whose own company is immediately intimate and inviting.
Another dear friend is music mogul Clive Davis, whose efforts to help transform the Bedford Playhouse into an arts center were chronicled in July WAG. Yu says he loves that Stewart and Davis never rest on their laurels: “I enjoy that they don’t stop.”
Neither does Yu. Like Stewart, he loves to garden, cook and entertain, hosting a surprise birthday party for her and Goldstein, with 100 friends last month. (WAG was honored to be invited.) Another soire might feature an Indian prince, chef Daniel Boulud, Richard Gere and Yu’s gardener for an evening that delves into Chinese food and music.
“Money can’t buy creativity,” Yu says. What he looks to do at his gatherings and in life is to reflect a mix of people and cultural interests.
Culture in the broadest sense of the word has been a passion of Yu’s ever since he was a child in Taiwan. His family were foodies who traveled the globe in search of a good meal. At 19, Yu came to the United States to study fine art and fashion at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. An internship in New York City during his senior year led to a full-time job in the fashion industry. At 21, he had a taste of owning his own business.
But that, he says, would really come later. For years, he worked for different companies, including the luxe women’s knitwear and sportswear brand Magaschoni, which is headquartered in Manhattan and is featured at department stores like Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as in specialty shops. Magaschoni also produced clothing for J. Crew and Michael Kors for 20 years.
In 2012, Yu founded his own company, 49 Andrew Yu, after the number of a new address and thus a new beginning.
“I felt the timing was right, and the money was there. I had always been a junior partner, so I decided to start my own company”, one in which he could implement his own design philosophy.
“My aesthetic is very modern, very clean,” he says of his preference for neutral colors, black, white, beige and nifty shades of gray. (When we first met him on the opening night of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts summer music festival in June, he was wearing black and cream with a creamy sash that evoked beauty and royalty.) From QVC, where he launched his Andrew Yu label in France, Italy and the United Kingdom, he learned to accommodate women of all ages, sizes and body types. (He also manufactured clothing for Bebe, Chico’s, White House Black Market and Saks Fifth Avenue’s own private menswear labels.)
Moving to Katonah, he was inspired by the gray stones of the terrain to create his fall/winter 2021 Bedford Collection of women’s clothing, made of 40% recycled cashmere. (Using recycled cashmere and less dye cuts down on pollution, he says.) At the Pound Ridge Partnership’s “Eco-Chic Evening” fundraiser for green initiatives last year, the demand for Yu’s designs was such that he has started his Shmere Collection of sustainable cashmere bomber jackets, two pieces, hoodies and joggers for men.
Yu says he’s retiring. But it certainly sounds as if he isn’t. Like his friends Stewart and Davis, he wants to keep going just in a slightly different direction.
“I have a new life and a new outlook in Bedford. I still have my capsule collections, art, food and entertaining. And I’ve become an investor in new talents to support future generations.”
Andrew Yu’s designs are featured in trunk shows in Bedford, Greenwich and New York City. For more, follow him on Instagram @ 49 Andrew Yu and on his website, 49andrewyu.com.
