A small house on Sukhumvit 71 where the bags are cut, sewn and finished by hand.
The idea behind toanoi is colour. Colour makes a day better, and we would rather the thing you carry every day did that than sit quietly in a corner being tasteful.
mikamica, who designs and founded toanoi, worked as a graphic designer in New York and Tokyo after finishing her master's degree at the Pratt Institute. toanoi started during her maternity leave, out of a pile of fabric she had been collecting on her travels and could not bring herself to leave in a cupboard.
What comes out of that is a mixture of colours and cultures that pays no attention to where a border is. Every piece is made with the same care at the back as at the front, from the lining to the smallest fitting, by hand, in our studio in Bangkok.
Our kimono bags are made from antique obi, the wide sash worn with a kimono in Japan, embroidered by hand in silk thread.
Obi is a delicate thing and a gorgeous one at the same time, and because every bag is cut from a different part of the cloth, no two of them come out alike. A kimono is formal Japanese dress. We turn it into a bag that goes with jeans on a Tuesday and with a dinner on a Saturday.
Every one is one of a kind, and we mean that literally. A length of obi makes a handful of bags, and when the cloth runs out, that bag is finished for good.
Japanese 
English