About Us

I am Tamara Makris and I am the Creative Director and founder of LAURACEA, a collection of equestrian minded leather goods that are all made in Italy.  I want to talk about who we are as a brand.

When I started LAURACEA, I wanted to create quality products that are classic and timeless - beautifully crafted from exceptional materials.  It was very important to me that as a brand, we create something of lasting worth and value. I want a LAURACEA purchase to be something that you can pass down to a younger generation, and not only will it look better with time, but it will still be fashionable.  Because classic is timeless, and timeless is good.  

But if you go to “OUR STORY”, you’ll see that the brand was 100% born of a desire for a functional, durable, beautiful product.  So really, for us as a brand, it’s never just about creating a luxury product. We first and foremost create a functional bag, always designed with clean lines and classic style that has staying power, made with exceptional materials and quality craftsmanship.  

I inherently believe that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  But creating a bag that is incredibly clean in appearance, but does quite a few things, and is highly functional for the user, such as our Convertible Backpack Tote, is actually a challenge.  But in the end I believe that we really have managed to achieve that. From the time I decided to actually start LAURACEA as a brand, there were years of product development that followed before we actually made it to market.  While our bags are timeless and classic, and made from really beautiful leathers, function is always our baseline. In wear-testing these bags, we made many changes that would seem unnoticeable. And that’s what we want. If the bag is working for you - you don’t notice a thing.  It’s when the bag is not meeting expectations that you stop and think about details. I found that the straps on our Classic Tote needed to be widened just a bit to avoid leaving red marks on the shoulder in warmer weather, when shoulders are bare. Straps needed to be longer on our Petite Tote because when it got colder, the straps were slipping off the shoulder of a bulky winter coat.  All inside slip pockets are sized to fit a wide variety of phones and they are always easy to grab. The bases are reinforced so that our bags don’t sag, but we kept the body soft and supple so you can really appreciate the beauty of our leathers. Equally important, we try very hard to make sure that the cost of a LAURACEA bag directly represents it’s worth. We have invested deeply in the quality of our products, from the leathers to the hardware and everything in-between, and I think it is well represented in our bags.  

Our customers understand quality and appreciate craftsmanship.  The LAURACEA customer prefers simplicity, sophistication, quality and function. And our bags speak to that.  I hope you’ll discover the quality and beauty of LAURACEA for yourself, and if you’re ever at a horseshow, look for us!  Go to the “find us” page on the website to learn where we’ll be. We’d love to meet you!