
Meet Garmentory Co-Founder & Mother of Two, Adele Tetangco
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Britney Gill
Style, business acumen, two gorgeous girls, and a healthy sense of humor—Adele Tetangco has it all. Which makes her the perfect pick for our very first Canada-based profile. The Vancouver mama of two (Jayme, 18, and Cielo, 6) is the co-founder of Garmentory, the innovative retail platform for independent designers that she launched in 2014. The company now showcases over 530 designers (it started with 25) and accounts for 30% of some of these brands’ online sales. A proud feminist who supports female-lead companies (and is raising two little ladies herself), we were thrilled to be invited over to Tetangco’s minimalist abode to discuss fashion, being a teen mom, Netflix binging, inescapable mom guilt, Canada’s envy-inducing maternity leave policy, how motherhood hasn’t influenced her career path, and much more.
- "I live in the suburbs in front of the gorgeous Traboulay Trail. We’re in a three-bedroom townhouse. We fell in love with the property the moment we saw it. It felt like we were in a resort. You can look at the facilities here!"
- Jayme wears a Ruth Bader Ginsberg “Supreme” shirt from Bulletin and vintage denim. Adele wears a Shaina Mote blouse and Samuji pants. Cielo wears a Black Crane dress.
- Where the Netflix'ing goes does. (More on that later).
- "Simple, white."
- Little ham.
- "Every time we travel for vacation or work to a new city, we come back with something for our house from our travels. So, the items in our place—even the tiniest—are very special to us."
- Want this gorgeous dress? We found it on sale (!) online.
- "I really dislike having kids' stuff everywhere, so all of my younger daughter Cielo’s toys stay in her room. She brings them downstairs to play, but they go back upstairs in her room when she’s done. I don’t like clutter and I think that it’s crazy that she can accumulate so much. I also make it a habit to donate her toys on a regular basis."
- The open kitchen/living room layout.
- One of Adele's many not-just-a-white-shirt white shirts.
- "My husband had this particular piece made by Christina of Fox & Flourish. We love music, so we knew we wanted lyrics. We had a hard time deciding which song to pick. We knew we wanted there to be a few f-bombs because we liked the contrast of the bad language mixed with really beautiful writing. He vetoed my idea of L.G.B.N.A.F."
- "The universal health care, the trees, the rain."
- "I don't know if there is a big difference between the U.S. and Canada in parenting style. But I do know that government makes a difference in terms of Canada giving mothers a year off for maternity leave, and now that's 18 months. Also, we have a Family Day holiday once a year. The day is different for each province that has it, but you're supposed to take off work and spend it with your family."
- "Maybe on a small deserted island with a TV for Netflix and unlimited access to Uber Eats."
- "We had so much fun working on her room. Her room is so small, so it was a challenge, given she has so much crap. Ryan, my husband, made an IKEA hack of her desk, with the two pull-out storage boxes to conceal the majority of her toys."
- Cute calendars.
- "My favorite element of the space is her gallery. I love Julie Morstad. She’s my favorite illustrator and she’s from Vancouver. I went with a theme of Alice In Wonderland and Hair. For the prints, I bought a couple and cut the rest out of a Morstad book called Milk Teeth."
- One of the Julie Morstad illustrations from Milk Teeth.
- "Cielo is 6 and in first grade. She's currently most into playing with Littlest Pet Shop and miniatures."
- Another color-coded bookshelf.
- "What excites me also saddens me. I get excited when I think about the people that my kids are going to become and the things that I can do to help shape them. But when I see them getting older, it makes me sad."
- "I don’t want anyone to ever take advantage of them."
- "Jayme Ryanne is my oldest. My mom’s maiden name is Jayme. Her dad’s name is Ryan. My youngest is Cielo Jean. Ryan came back from Paris wanting to give her a French name."
- A peek into Jayme's space.
- "Jayme’s room has been growing older with her. I love her triangle shelf. When she was 12, we noticed that she was starting to grow out of the atmosphere of her room. So, we surprised her for her birthday and re-did it. This triangle shelf was a piece that we had made for her."
- Tiny treasures on display.
- "Jayme is turning 18 in May and is in her last year of high school. She's into getting ready to move out for university."
- Jayme wears a dress from Aritzia.
- "Most definitely. Jayme has an effortless sense of style. Something that I always wanted when I was her age!"
- "The pro is that my oldest can babysit the youngest. The con is that the big gap in between has made me a lazy mom with the second. We don’t even have any printed photos of Cielo in the house!"
- "I was the youngest of three girls. So, we fought a lot."
- "Take as many naps as you can now."
- A good sense of humor definitely runs in the family.
- "I aim to teach kindness, inclusion, and love, and I give them my trust."
- Wise words from Tupac.
- The most beautiful smiles.
- "I love that it’s mostly white with some green plants. I love the blank white walls. It makes our room feel like a sanctuary. Peaceful."
- Lovely trio.
- "I’ve always worked in this segment of fashion and have always been passionate about it, so I wanted to create a platform to support it."
- Adele wears a Caron Callahan blouse and vintage men’s work pants from Shop Boswell.
- "I went to university, but I ended up getting pregnant within my first two months there. I still took classes after my oldest daughter was born, then I enrolled in a direct response marketing program, since I knew I wanted to do marketing. I took night classes for a while, so that when I went back full-time, my schedule and course load wasn't too intense. After that I interned for a local designer and I ended up staying there for eight years, which is where I met Sunil Gowda, who is one of Garmentory's co-founders. When I had my second daughter and went on maternity leave for a year, I started to think about what I wanted to do next. The fashion world had changed drastically over five prior to that. Sunil had reached out to me and said he was looking for a dress for his wife, but couldn't find any that worked, and he had an idea for this fashion business and asked me if I wanted to do it with him. I said of course. It's been over five years now since conception. Today we have 16 employees, a CEO, and over 530 vendors on the site, after launching with just 25. We've been able to account for 30% of some of these companies overall online sales."
- "That speech Oprah gave at the Golden Globes the other night."
- Cielo wears a Meme Kids blouse from Mine Mine Kids and vintage Levi’s.
- "I had my first daughter really young, when I was in my late teens. I was in my first year of university, so I’ve always had to juggle school or work and being a mom. It was harder when I was younger. I was a single mom, so I never had another view other than having to work to provide for my daughter."
- "I've been doing it for so long, but I don't think it ever gets easy. In some ways it gets harder just internally and how I feel. I try to make my trips as short as possible. If I can come home at night, even if it's late, I will fly out at night. If I'm traveling during school holidays, I'll bring the kids with me."
- Adele wears a Suzanne Rae blouse and “Feminist” blazer, and custom vintage denim from Duo NYC.
- "I struggle with mom guilt all the time. When I think about it, it makes me want to cry. It's an ongoing struggle, especially because I travel so much. I've missed the first day of school and Mother's Day and Halloween. I've missed so many things for Garmentory and I feel guilty about it. I don't yet know how to deal with that. All I can do is be present when I'm home. And when I travel I'll bring my daughters something back from my trip so they know I was thinking about them."
- "For me, I don't think they're related. Since I had my first daughter when I was so young, I've always had my own life, and also my life with my kids. I don't feel like I've sacrificed anything career-wise. I'm not succeeding at work because I need to succeed for my kids. It's because I want to succeed. It's hard to explain—the two are one, but the two are separate. I would do my career regardless if I had a family or not."
- "This has been a constant struggle for me, something I’m still trying to figure out. Currently, I have all three. So, I’m doing something right. I just don’t know what yet."
- “I’m excited for our Garmentory pop-up shop at Poketo in L.A. this March!”
- “I love everything oversized. My style icons are the Olsen twins when they were in high school and college. Whenever my sister sees me, she always asks if I’m in my pajamas.” Jayme wears a Comme des Garcons tee and vintage pants. Cielo wears a Black Crane dress and Woodland socks.
- “Rachel Comey is my forever crush. What Supreme is to boys, Rachel Comey is to me! If she made Q-Tips, I would buy her Q-Tips. I’m attracted to everything she does. She makes ugly cool in a sense. She’s always made things that are a bit unconventional, but still beautiful. Then there’s Suzanne Rae out of Brooklyn. I just love how every time I go to market and look at everybody’s collections, she’s always doing something that no one else is doing. This past season, everybody did a lime green and purple, she did navy, light blue, red, and black. She’s really talented, super nice, her shoes are gorgeous. I have six things of hers coming in for spring and I can’t wait to get more. Maria Dora is a designer who I have not personally purchased from yet, but I’m excited to. She has beautiful knitwear that’s really special, and her photography is gorgeous. And I love Ilana Kohn and how casual she is with her stuff, but not dressed down. Her designs are very comfortable and wearable. Every time I travel I wear her jumpsuits.” At the Garmentory studio—Adele wears a Rachel Comey blouse, Samuji pants, and Suzanne Rae shoes.
- “Vintage pieces. Rachel Comey Mars boots, which I have in a bunch of colors. And I have about 30 white shirts in my closet.”
- “I’m really into bigger earrings. I recently went to a thrift store and found 20 pieces of earrings for $1! I think I ordered seven earrings from Rachel Comey for spring. I’ve been riding the earrings wave for a while, and it’s not over for me yet. I don’t look at trends as being ‘out.’ For me, I know when things are ‘over’ for myself when I look in the mirror and don’t feel comfortable anymore wearing it. So, one of the things I know are over for me are the cropped, wide-legged pants. I got rid of mine. Right now I’m into my dad’s old pants from the 1980s that he would wear to work. Kind of wide-legged, but longer, and with pleats on the top.”
- “I don’t wash my face! I know it’s sad, but I don’t wash it. I’ll take a shower and I’ll rinse my face off with water, but I don’t have a face wash or anything. So, if I don’t take a shower, my face won’t get washed. I’ll put on creams, though. I use JAO a lot, this really great, all-natural face cream I bought at Oroboro in Brooklyn. I’ve also been doing things so that I don’t have to use makeup anymore, like lash extensions and I just got my eyebrows micro-bladed. Then, I just need to use some bronzer or blush, that’s it.”
- "I keep trying to have a wellness routine where I go for a jog. I have this app called Running, which has 24 workouts for running. But I can only get up to 3, which means I've done it 8 times and then I stop. It's difficult because I travel so much, so even if I do start something, I lose it. I used to be on a recreational dodgeball team and that was fun. I know I should have a wellness routine, but I'm just not there in life." Shoes by Suzanne Rae.
- "My downtime is Netflix and I do it before I sleep. I binge watch everything. I finished Manhunt: Unabomber. I've watched Freaks & Geeks like three times now. Once I start, I can't stop. Even if it's shitty. I can't stop watching it, I don't know why."
- "My resolution is no bullshit. That, and trying to cook more and actually have food in the fridge for my family." For more on Adele and her family, check out her Instagram feed, as well as Garmentory's feed.
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