Hi I am Ryder Snow, the co-founder of TENNO. If you clicked this it probably means you wonder who I am, what I do, and what part I have in TENNO. Well guess what? I'm not telling you. Just kidding. Currently I am the designer, video director and website manager at TENNO.
School was where my love for art started. In grade 5 I was the only one out of my friends to get a C+ in art class. Art was supposed to be a subject everyone got an A in but for some reason my teacher though my art was "different". Now you're probably wondering why should I buy clothing from a designer who get's C+'s in art class. And to be honest I don't blame you, but hear me out.
(my old art work)
In grade 6, me, my mom and my sister moved to my grandparents place in Japan for half a year to help them out.
(I am half Canadian half Japanese)
(my grandparents, my sister and me)
So I ended up going to school in Japan. School was way harder in Japan but one of the thing's I enjoyed was the sewing and arts class. I never did sewing or design in Canada so it was cool. I learned a lot of new skills but I never thought much of it until I came back to Canada and went to highschool.
High school is where I met Sakuya. Sakuya was an international student from Japan who barley spoke english and what's funny is, I was the first person he met in highschool by complete accident. I was walking in the commons and bumped into him on the first day of school and I apologized but he said it's okay. But he had this really strong Japanese accent on his english if I put what he said in writing it sounded something like, "Ohhh isu okeyu". So the second after he said that, I said "omae nihonjin?" are you Japanese? And he laughed really hard for some reason and from that day we've been friends ever since.
We started TENNO together in grade 12. To me TENNO is our art. Creating designs, measuring where to put stuff on pieces, learning how different materials work with different fabrics, mixing colours. It's a long process but I enjoy it and I can't see myself doing something else.
TENNO will change the world and I will make sure of it.
-Ryder Snow (2022)