About Us
- Our Story
- Our Team
Founding Story
Industry veterans, Eli Caner and Tanya Amini of Lady and Butler have built a successful global uniform company by focusing on bridging the gap between form and function, with clients spanning Equinox Hotels, Four Seasons, Museum of Ice Cream, and Via Carota.
With the onslaught of the pandemic in early 2020, Caner and Amini's personal and professional life drastically shifted. As a concerned mother, Amini searched for protective wear for her son in grade school, and it became apparent that the duo’s hospitality partners and in-house teams were also searching for the same quality masks and protective gear. Eli and Tanya began to research the data and the pitfalls of sub-par products flooding the market.
During this time, Bonnie Poon, owner of the leading ethically manufacturing supply chain in China, recognized the detrimental effects that single-use protective products were having on the environment. She swiftly pivoted her business and established a new division with a focus on sourcing PPE in an ethically conscious manner. Soon after, an organic partnership formed between Amini, Caner, and Poon and the trio combined their individual strengths to create a fashion brand that considered four key factors: fashion, protection, comfort, and environmentally sound.
From there, Better Off Alone was born; a reimagined fashion brand that provides consumers with beautifully-designed, ethically sourced protective garments.
Our Team
Eli Caner, Co-Founder
Born and raised in Barcelona, Eli’s passion for travel and fashion were present at an early age. Inspired by her mother’s love for pattern-making and knitting, Eli started dreaming and sketching her own designs.
At 22, Eli moved to the USA to pursue a career in fashion, working with designers including Camilla Staerk, Jonathan Simkhai and Timo Weiland. Her fashion experience, combined with her ties to hospitality and nightlife, inspired her to fill what she viewed as a glaring gap: a lack of modern, chic, and functional uniforms. From her East Village design studio in New York City, the vision for Lady and Butler was born and now acts as the brands founder and creative director. Her designs speak to ambitious, global creatives looking for timeless, bold, utilitarian and beautiful uniforms to improve the brand experience.
In 2020 during the global pandemic, Eli Caner once again saw a gap in the production of single-use protective wear -- wearable and fashionable garments that provide comfort and care for the environment. Determined to once again solve a gap, she worked with her co-founders to launch Better Off Alone.
Tanya Amini, Co-Founder
A longtime friend and business consultant for Eli Caner, Tanya, a 20 year advertising and marketing vet for companies including Conde Nast, in 2019 joined Lady and Butler serving as President. A proven media and brand executive, Tanya led successful sales and marketing collaborations with world class brands including CHANEL, Dior, Gucci and Tiffany. Lady and Butler became the perfect marriage of her business and brand building expertise with her passions for travel, design and fashion.
In 2020, Tanya searched for protective wear for her son in grade school, and it became apparent that the search for quality masks and protective wear became personal.
Bonnie Poon, Co-Founder
The fashion manufacturing industry was undeniably woven into Bonnie Poon’s destiny. With family-owned garment manufacturing plants in NYC and China, the ‘career’ dye had been cast before she was born. But the industry path she chose was anything but ordinary, or easy some might argue.
By 2005, she was working the factory floors in Hong Kong and China to identify more environmentally friendly and sustainable ways to manufacture clothing. Her goal was to create new best practices and incorporate them into a business model that supported young designers with limited in-house and production resources.
In 2014, Bonnie established Golden Times Group Limited (GTG); a company built on her core beliefs of social responsibility and supporting young brands. GTG works alongside their clients to create and develop innovative solutions to streamline development, production and supply chains, while enhancing quality control and wastage reduction.
In 2020, in response to the COVID epidemic, GTG established a new division with a focus on sourcing PPE; selling directly to Catalan government and Canadian hospital. It was then that Bonnie saw the impact single-use PPE has on the environment that she partnered with Eli and Tanya to launch Better Off Alone.