Where the name Early Birds came from

Chinatsu simply loves the early morning. The Early Birds was named after her lifestyle store in Kamakura, Japan where she was the director of the gift boutique 2010-2014. She designed original products and curated beautiful craft & arts from all over the world.

“The early bird catches the worm” is a well-known definition of one of tips of the "successful life". As we know, success isn't only about our career and social status, it is about how much we feel fulfilled everyday.

She believes if we have a fresh great start every morning, you are in the best version of yourself with a full potential of being. What and how to eat, who you want to connect with, what kind of job you want to choose, what time go to bed with what status of mind… if your daily decision is made for how happily we can wake up with that amazing feeling in both body and mind, you are already on the right path. She wished the daily simple choice and experience would design our life differently.
 
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.” - a yogic Sanskrit mantra.

She knows how powerful all her thoughts, words, and creations are able to bring that happiness and freedom to everyone.



Fashion Design to Wellness Design

Four years after the store project was over, she passed over the name to her new creative studio just after she sold Jamo Associates, her co-launched previous company, to her co-founder friend architect in 2017. With the same wish that her creations bring healthy, happy living to the world, Studio Early Birds was launched in a small beach town in the South Bay of Southern California, where she relocated to stay with her sister to pursue a slower mindful yogic living. Her creations shifted to bring wellness and healing into “space”.

At her previous design studio, Jamo Associates was launched in her early 20's in Tokyo, just after she came back from world travels and studying in England. Her fresh open mind and ideas co-ran the studio to tailor space and design projects for stunning positive living. Her known philosophy was that fashion is not about creation of clothing and looks but how to live mindfully, including how to eat mindfully and how to make “space” that we plant ourselves in.

When building or decorating a space, people often think the design of the house will fall into place with the right paint color, the width of crown molding, the height of the windows, or the type of flooring they choose. We have all been to homes that are exquisitely crafted and still get stark and empty feelings. Chinatsu understands how to bring all of the elements such as light, fragrance and energy together harmoniously in an intuitional gestalt vision.  She naturally and artistically curates every aspect of her life in this way.  With her talent, she can show you how you style your “space” ,or project, to represent who we are and what our reality will be.

In design transition, Studio Early Birds led a Slow Flower Project to show in Salon Del Mobile, the biggest international interior design fair in Milan, Italy, for Green Wise, one of the oldest nurseries in Tokyo. Shortly after we directed and designed a lifestyle & fashion store, The store by C', curated arts and vintage furniture for their main street store in Daikanyama, Tokyo. Yuko, who has been working with Chinatsu as a graphic designer for over 8 years, designed logos and website for yoga related graphic design, including 423 yoga studio in Redondo Beach, California.
 

Design “Space" within

When we hear "space", what do you visualize? Your home? Your boundary with others? Space in your body and mind?

After seventeen years of offering commercial interior designs, her interest has shifted to more “space" inside. She began to learn how to design our body and mind. It was an organic shift for her dealing with childhood traumas, allergies, digestion dysfunctions and metastatic cancer with cruel side effects.

Her two decades of yoga and meditation practice helped her healing journey tremendously. Yoga has become a big part of Chinatsu’s life. Soon after her body regained its strength, she attended Yoga Alliance Certified teacher training at Yogaworks, El Segundo, California to deepen her practice. She enjoyed yoga retreats, workshops and training in South America and India.  By her dedication to yoga, she has found the importance of “space” inside of our body and mind, which creates our mood, thoughts, and perspective to define our reality. Since 2020, she has begun to share her personal wellness journey to the local community in Los Angeles and Orange County in California.

 

Our Branches and the Future

We are excited to share Chinatsu’s wisdom and skill from her design work for your wellness journey and projects. She has in-person yoga classes and workshops in the Southern California. Our new offering Yoga + Mentorship is personal weekly work for a person who is interested in that amazing transformation and self realization or even simply how to design our body, mind and space. We are planning local and international retreats next year. We can help your wellness project.

Life sometimes looks not simple but if you can create calmness with clear awareness, we have a pretty simple function. Everything is connected holistically. When we work on our “space” within, our reality outside will follow.

We look forward to you joining us through yoga and design to create a supportive wellness community with you. Let us walk by your side.

Let’s design the body, mind and space.
Love,
Studio Early Birds team