Irena was born in November 1972 in Siberia, Russia.
After attending art school as a teenager, Irena’s first exposure to the field of design was in Ivanovo, the heart of Russian textile industry, where she studied textile decoration.
In 1993, Irena moved to Israel and in 1998 graduated
Shenkar College of Textile Technology and Fashion with honors.
In 1999 Irena was granted the
Japanese Ministry of Education scholarship award and moved to Japan to complete her masters degree in Design studies at the
Tama Art University, Tokyo, where Irena was fortunate to be guided by leaders of Japanese design:
Makiko Minagawa, Yokoo Tadanori and
Koichi Sato.
Besides years of formal art education in Russia and earning an industry-oriented design degree in Israel, Irena is trained in the traditional techniques of Japanese textiles. To learn from the best, Irena worked part-time for the
Nuno company in Tokyo and was a full-time intern at
Creation Baumann, Switzerland.
Irena’s projects include designing over a dozen collections for Japanese high-end apparel maker
"Ozone Rocks", serving as a curator of two consecutive annual textile exhibitions for the
Design Living Center in Tokyo, presenting in numerous group and solo international exhibitions.
At
Tokyo Designers Block 2004 Irena was awarded the Product Design Award and earlier in 1998 the
America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award.
In 2005 Irena was hired to design and develop various textile products for the newly renovated
Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Irena currently resides in New York City with her husband and two sons.
Download Irena Pe'er's resume [
pdf]
