The name

Tho Kyar

Tho Kyar is carved from my own surname — O-KYAR. It began as a simple fact: I am the last woman, and the last person, of my family lineage.

The name isn't an aspiration; it's that fact. Being the last carries a particular weight — the responsibility to transform what has been carried into something that outlasts the line itself.

THO and KYAR together hold purity, essence, strength, nobility, guidance, illumination. I took the name as a way to carry the past forward — and as the home for my work.

Etymology

THO

Vietnamese · Ancient Latin roots

Poetic · Purity · Strength · Essence

KYAR

Burmese (Myanmar) · Indo-European

Nobility · Pride · Guidance · Illumination

"The strength of heritage, the elegance of transformation, and a timeless vision."

Where the work is going

Luxury packaging

Bioyarn knitted over fragrance bottles and into ritual pouches — the Mother of Pearl capsule.

Luxury accessories

Crocheted bioyarn bags, necklaces and embellishments — shown on the FGI24 runway.

Living composites

Mycelium grown through knitted textile — the most experimental thread.

Berrak Zeynep Okyar

Material designer · Milan · Lisbon

Biography

I'm a material designer based in Milan, currently in my second year of Fabricademy at Biolab Lisboa. My work sits where artisan craft, material science and luxury design meet.

The material I keep returning to is bioyarn — sodium alginate drawn from brown seaweed, extruded by hand through a syringe into a calcium chloride bath, where it sets into a structured thread. I knit it, crochet it, weave it; it dissolves in water. It began as an experiment in November 2024 and was on a professional runway sixteen days later, at Fashion Graduate Italia.

Since then the work has grown into mycelium-textile hybrids, pH-reactive alginate biofilms, and ferrofluid in bio-based materials. Each study asks the same question: what changes when a material has a lifecycle?

My work has been supported by Emmetex, Studio Mamo, Biolab Lisboa and NABA. My next showing is Luxe Pack Paris — 17–18 June 2026, at the Carrousel du Louvre.

Education & credentials

Milan

Master's in Fashion and Textile Design

NABA — Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti

Thesis: Calculated Chaos — algae-based sustainable materials

Biolab Lisboa

Bio-materials & E-textiles Diploma (2025–2026)

Fabricademy

Current. Research: FERRO (ferrofluid + biomaterials), mycelium × textile hybrids

Biolab Lisboa

Bio-materials & E-textiles Diploma (prior year)

Fabricademy

First Fabricademy year — returned for advanced research

London

Bio-inspired Textile Design

London College of Fashion (UAL)

Online certificate

Istanbul

Diploma in Fashion Design

Istanbul Fashion Academy

Istanbul

Certificate in Shoe Design

Vakko Esmod

Ankara

Bachelor's in International Relations

TOBB University

First degree — pre-design career