[1][2] Born in April 1957 in Pforzheim, West Germany, Maier was raised in a family of architects and attended a Waldorf school as a child.

Maier was appointed by Tom Ford to become the Creative Director at Bottega Veneta in June 2001,[2][3] when the company was acquired by the Gucci Group (which merged with PPR in 2008 and became Kering in 2013).

Among the product categories that Bottega Veneta now offers, in addition to women's and men's ready-to-wear collections, are accessories, jewellery, furniture, seating, tabletop, desktop, luggage, porcelain, eyewear, fragrance and watches.

[5] In 2014, Maier and Bottega Veneta partnered with the Japanese publication Casa BRUTUS and launched an initiative to raise awareness of the potential destruction of Modernist buildings in Japan due to economics, politics, and the preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

[2][10] On 19 November 2013, Kering announced it was investing in Tomas Maier's own label to "infuse it with the capital needed to ramp up expansion, including the addition of more company-owned boutiques".