Studio Tomori is the brainchild of Vanessa Lunn, who graduated in 2012 with a BA in Textiles from Chelsea College of Art, where her obsession with fabrics started to grow.
Moving to Hong Kong were she met Tesia Chang, a buyer from NYC they cooked up the idea of starting a sustainable fashion brand. Sick of seeing the fast fashion world and its impact on the Asian sky. Choosing the name ‘Momentomori’ the latin phrase for remember that you have to die. Later that year Tesia found she had breast Cancer and unfortunately passed away. Studio Tomori is a small fragment of her, which lives on along with their shared appreciation and love affair for Kimono and Japanese fabric design.
Japanese culture and their approach to fabric design has always fascinated Vanessa. The vast majority using naturally died fabric and only the highest quality. Every Kimono is made by hand, delicately sewn fabrics combined with perfectly cut shapes enveloping the body in such an elegant and seductive way without showing a hint of flesh. Kimono are considered forms of art, they have a long history of class and ceremony which still stands to this day.
Studying Patten cutting alongside work, Vanessa became enchanted by the art of tailoring, training under Saville rows second Female pattern cutter Rebecca Devlin.
The Studio is now based in North London where we house the Studio Tomori Kimono archive, which is available to hire via The House London. Where the fabric Selection process for each individual garment is made.