temono

temono is a melbourne based leather goods label designing and hand crafting leather bags, wallets and accessories and that stand for quality and originality. our leathers are sourced from tanneries with good environmental practices including waste disposal wherever possible. our kangaroo range is vegetable tanned in australia. temono started in tokyo in 2004 out of a love for craft and passion for creativity with the first range called "te.". since then it has continued to grow, and now has added the temono range to the collection. our theory of design and production remains. temono products are truly hand crafted and our designers sketch the ideas, cut the patterns, source the materials and construct the products in our own studio. our love for the original and dislike of the mass produced, along with our focus on traditional techniques ensures that the product is pre loved. the brand therefore cannot grow out of control where its aura becomes greater than itself.

"te." is our high end range of leather goods and is where our passion really lies. "te." means hand in japanese and this represents the way we make the "te." range. we hand work the leathers to either die, colour, soften, polish or age them. we utilise traditional methods and practices like hand stitching and cutting and we favour hand operated machines. each "te." piece is crafted individually as you will see in the attention to detail and the individuality. we hope you love your "te." as much as we have loved making it.

buying temono products

because of the hand made quality of temono bags, wallets and accessories no two products will be exactly the same. all products are made to order and not kept in stock. you can make special requests for your "te." so it suits you perfectly. like slow food (the backlash to fast food) the things that are good for us are not instant. your temono piece could take up to 3 weeks production time before being shipped to you, but the wait for something that is individual and non-production line is well worth it. most times we get things out within about 9 days but we do get busy so if you do need your order sooner for some reason please let us know so we can try to accommodate you.

Jarren Borghero

i started making things from the moment i was born. Whether it was candles or cooking, sewing or painting, i did it. if it could be crafted i wanted to craft it. my parents are the same so it wasn't hard to find good teachers and my father was also a leather worker in his spare time. making superbly crafted stock whips my father instilled in me a love for leather craft.
my background however is art based. i left high school in australia so i could attend a more art orientated program in sweden for a year. i then got my degree in photographic art from queensland college of art, griffith university. after graduation I exhibited my art work for a while and was employed to develop an art gallery for creative training aboriginal corporation where i stayed for 2 years. but it was japan that beckoned me, so for a year i went and for 3 it kept me. 2 of which saw the inspiration and development for te. and my love for craft rekindled.
Having gained art training and an understanding of design along with the teachings of my father i was able to realize more. i could create work that had my own personal touch and idiosyncrasies. te. was born.

Toshimitsu Ota

From Okinawa, Japan Toshi Ota moved to Tokyo where he studied tech drawing and design as a bit of Video. The film projects lead him to computers and eventually wen design and system development. He spent many years developing mobile web content as a web director. In 2006 Toshimitsu moved to Melbourne, Australia and continued to design websites as temono’s web and graphic designer. He has now moved into collaborating on product design and general operating as partner in the business.