Born in Germany and trained in fashion design and pattern making at Paris’ ESMOD (Ecole Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode), Tina Lutz Morris joined Issey Miyake’s Paris atelier after graduating. There she worked alongside the designer on a wide range of projects. After two years, Tina transferred to the company’s Tokyo headquarters to join the Japanese design team.
Tina relocated to New York in 1992 to join Calvin Klein as a senior designer to help conceptualize and launch the CK Calvin Klein women’s line, a lifestyle brand that critics considered groundbreaking for its timely approach as well as its headline- making ad campaigns.
In 2000, Tina co-founded Lutz & Patmos in New York, a women’s ready-to-wear line that focused on luxury knitwear. In her role as creative and branding director for over a decade, Tina spearheaded innovative, multi-platform collaborations
She developed the notable ‘Guest Designer’ series, charitable partnerships with creative luminaries including Julianne Moore, Sofia Coppola, Jane Birkin, Carine Roitfeld, Kirsten Dunst, Christy Turlington, Ines van Lamsweerde, Liv Tyler, Fabien Baron, Richard Meier, Natalia Vodianova and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Additionally, Tina worked with multiple companies on various brand collaborations, such as Lutz & Patmos x Uniqlo, multiple season knitwear collections for Coach, a homeware collection for West Elm and a mini-collection for Volkswagen’s launch of the Eos convertible.
Lutz & Patmos’ designs were featured in the Cooper–Hewitt National Design Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Royal Museum of Scotland. Lutz & Patmos was also a finalist in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award in 2005 alongside Thom Brown and Derek Lam.
After Lutz & Patmos, Tina served as the Creative Director for the luxury knitwear brand TSE. This comprehensive role included restructuring and leading the design, merchandising and marketing teams, as well as repositioning and redesigning the ready-to-wear collections. She introduced ethical fashion components to the brand narrative, including sustainable materials, local production in New York, and altruistic collaborations with student groups and artisans in Afghanistan and Swaziland.
Parallel, Tina served as adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for four years.
In 2015, Tina began spending more time in Berlin and in her native Germany, where she launched Lutz Morris, a line of German made luxury handbags based on her career-long passion for artisanship, responsible production and altruism. Lutz Morris is made consciously and ethically with locally sourced components, focusing on craftsmanship, quality and longevity. The brand embraces ‘Slow Fashion’, minimizing inventory and waste of all kinds while maximizing social impact through giving back. In 2020, Lutz Morris won the sustainability award from the FGI (Fashion Group International) in New York.
Tina has been a member of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) since 2006 and was a member of CFDA’s New Member Committee, Sustainability Committee and Education Committee. She is also a member of the FCG (Fashion Council of Germany).
She is now living in Milan.