Founder & CEO

Lori Bate

Lori’s career is grounded in decades of formal training, creative leadership, and cross-disciplinary expertise. With degrees from Wesleyan, UVA, and FIT, as well as teaching appointments as a visiting critic at Harvard, Yale, and MIT, she brings an academic depth and professional rigor rarely found in the world of interiors. Her work spans architecture, fashion, and design education, giving her a uniquely comprehensive perspective. Design professionals look to her not only for insight but for access. Her curatorial lens uncovers rare, storied pieces you won’t find anywhere else, sourced from artisans and ateliers around the world.

A Quiet Authority

Design professionals turn to Lori and The Wren for more than beautiful objects. They come for expertise and her well-trained eye that understands proportion, provenance, and the power of restraint. They come for thoughtful sourcing that honors craftsmanship and cultural context, and for curation that feels personal, not performative. She knows what it means to design for legacy, and she helps others do the same.

The World as Her Atelier

Rome, Venice, Paris, Jaipur, Marrakech.
From alleyway ateliers to historic ruins, Lori has immersed herself in design cultures across the globe. She studies how people live, create, and preserve meaning through material. These travels are not souvenirs, they’re studies, and they shape the editorial lens through which Lori sources, selects, and curates for The Wren.