Born into a trading merchant family in Osaka, Reiko Mori grew up having access to fabric and other materials from around the world. She spent her teen years immersing herself in handcrafts and fashion with her mother, who enjoyed sewing. She moved to Tokyo when she was 20 years old and began her career working for a magazine. She married, became a mother, and raised her growing family but had a dream of working with fabric. In 2000, she opened a shop featuring handmade goods in the Setagaya district of Tokyo called Love Letter. Around the same time she also became fascinated with computer software and the ability to work on 3D objects. This led her to begin designing embroidery patterns using 3D aspects. Along with authoring books, Ms.

Mori also teaches sewing and embroidery classes, which she considers to be an opportunity for her to learn.