Guest Spotlight : Marciante & Co
We are so excited to kick off this new “Guest Spotlight” series with a brand we absolutely love. Marciante and Co is a small business founded by an incredible couple, Matt and Jacqueline Marciante. They make gorgeous luxury leather footwear and accessories and they are based in the heart of Dallas. The Marciante and Co team has visited The Lumen Room many times over the years and have transformed the space to perfectly fit their launch parties, photoshoots, and personal projects. Their work ethic is unmatched and they are tastemakers in the fashion industry. It was an honor to host this recent shoot:
We wanted to dive into a bit of what makes Marciante and Co such a unique brand in their industry. Founders Matt and Jacqueline Marciante answered a few questions for us about their process, story, and work environment:
How did you first come up with the idea to start Marciante and Co? When we were dating, Matt loved leather boots and accessories and had 50+ pairs of shoes and Jacqueline had always wanted to do something creative in the fashion space. We started a conversation about doing something creative together and those pieces kind of clicked...then we were inspired by Warby Parker to develop a line of very high quality (rivaling luxury fashion houses) products available at a price that's a little more attainable to the general public without the price gouging and insane inflated price that some of the luxury name brands tend to carry. That's where our vision of "Leather for the people" came from - almost a Robin Hood type approach to the industry, taking something seen as unattainable to the majority and making it accessible.
How do you manage being spouses and co-workers? It DEFINITELY took some getting used to, but we have learned to create some boundaries to protect our personal time, otherwise it's all work all the time. There's constantly work to be done, and things to talk about regarding the business but that personal connection time is still super important and we make sure to intentionally carve out space to spend quality time without any shop chat.
Do you have any advice for people who want to start a fashion brand? Be patient and spend plenty of time on the branding and identity on the front end! Depending on the niche, fashion brands are a dime a dozen, so it's important to take the time to really craft your story. Who you are, what makes you special, what's going to create an audience that loves. your brand compared to others in the same space. Designing your products is obviously a major piece of the puzzle, but more than the product itself you're selling your story or personality to customers. They want to have something to connect with.
What is one product or service that Marciante and Co couldn’t live without? SONOS! If you know us at all, you know how important the music is...our work environment is so crucial to the creative process and we always want people to be enjoying what they're doing. We utilize Sonos at our shop because you can play more than one playlist on the same system so we can have some chill lobby type music playing in the front showroom so it's customer friendly, and then in the back or warehouse it's a community playlist that we ask everyone to dump some songs into so it ends up being very eclectic but a great working experience that brings out personalities and helps us all stay motivated through even the busiest days. Honestly any soundsystem would do this, so it isn't specifically Sonos that we couldn't live without - but just music in general.
Workflow This or That:
Coffee or Tea? Coffee all day. Not even close. We do drink herbal tea every night before going to bed, but it's coffee every other time.
Late Nights or Early Mornings? Matt is a night owl and Jac is an early riser. Sometimes we don't have a choice and it's both, but we balance each other out well.
Big launches or slow rollouts? Slow rollouts. Big launches are definitely fun but a LOT more work and potential chaos...it's also not always as sustainable momentum in the long run.
Music or Podcasts? Both! Always music, 24/7 but we do listen to a lot of podcasts for inspiration as well especially when driving. "How I built this" is a favorite for sure
Do yourself a favor and check out Marciante and Co for the most gorgeous leather goods you’ve ever seen. Thank you to Paul Arturo Torres for the beautiful video footage.