Born in Siberia, Russia, Irena Peer attended art school as a teenager and her first exposure to the field of design was in Ivanovo, the heart of Russian textile industry, where she studied textile decoration. Peer moved to Israel in 1993 and graduated from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design with honors. In 1999, she was granted the Japanese Ministry of Education scholarship award and moved to Japan to complete her master’s degree in design studies at the Tama Art University, Tokyo. While there, she was fortunate to be guided by leaders of Japanese design: Makiko Minagawa, Yokoo Tadanori and Koichi Sato.

Among her many professional achievements, Irena Peer has designed more than one dozen collections for Japanese high-end apparel maker "Ozone Rocks," served as a curator of two consecutive annual textile exhibitions for the Design Living Center in Tokyo, and presented in numerous international solo and group exhibitions. In 2004, while at Tokyo Designers Block, she was awarded the Product Design Award. She was also honored with the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award in 1998. In 2005, Peer was hired to design and develop various textile products for the newly renovated Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Peer currently resides in New York City where she runs Irena Peer Studio, which provides specialized services in textile and surface design to international and domestic clients in the interior and fashion industries.

Download Irena Pe'er's resume [pdf]