About
Yuko Ogawa, a Brooklyn-based hat designer was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. Surrounded by the Japanese love of craft 'excellence', as a young girl, she grew up helping her mother design clothes. These experiences became the foundation for her work. Then in 1999, on a trip to Jamaica, she was deeply inspired by the vibrancy of the people, their colorful culture and deeply rooted sense of an ethnic past. Returning to Japan, Yuko started crocheting and creating hats inspired by her experiences. Really Roots was born... At the time, her signature hats were a bubbly mix of lively colored yarns and ethnic materials, appealing to both men and women in Japan searching for a classic yet authentic product.
Always keen to evolve, in 2007, Yuko came to the USA where she attended FIT in New York. It was a new awakening for her as she developed a deep awareness in the New Yorker's pride as Americans but so often with roots 'somewhere else'. Inspired by this, Yuko stayed on to design new products that would appeal to both the US and Japanese markets. Brooklyn style and Japanese excellence, always with an ethnic twist, began to define Yuko's hats and in the winter of 2008 they went on sale in New York. A summer range soon followed with Really Roots product appearing in SoHo boutiques and Japanese department stores and the business going from strength to strength.
In 2019 it was time to move on again. New designs and new materials appeared, along with a rebranding. With a deep sense of her own Roots, Yuko launched Teruko, a brand that pays homage to her Grandmother but with a link to the earth in which our Roots thrive and a recognition of Yuko's own energy that brings life to these beloved products