What is your background?

I was born in New York and raised in Texas. My dad was a fifth-generation Texan (my paternal grandmother once confessed to my mom that she never thought her son would marry “out of state”). My mom’s roots are half Japanese, half Swedish; both of her parents were first-generation Americans.  

I studied art history and initially made my way back to New York to work in the art world. My first gig was at a gallery. Somehow, though, I stumbled into fashion and startups. I helped launch a couple of brands before consulting and launching Porto. The underpinning of my work is storytelling. I enjoy creating worlds. A brand is a world. So is a painting, or a poem. I enjoy mulling, and maybe even obsessing, over the details. Putting pieces together, untethering them a bit, and that space in-between, where you make connections, create wholeness out of nothing. There’s a delicate power in it.

What inspired you to launch Porto?

I saw an opportunity to create an environmentally conscious brand focused on natural materials and hand craftsmanship. I was inspired by the principles of wabi-sabi. 

 
The need for the product was also there. I am a uniform person, I only have a few items that I wear over and over again. But I never found the right handbag. I admire handbags from afar, but they never worked for me. The experience of wearing one always left me a bit miffed—moving all my items from one place to the next was inconvenient, something was always missing or left behind, and then the straps slipped off my shoulders. And back when we were commuting, I carried a workbag of some kind, which didn’t leave room for a handbag but did leave me with the problem of where to put my keys, cards, phone. The Pouch is a solution. It carries everything you need in one place and has wrist straps so you can wear it independently or toss it in another bag. There’s ease and fluidity in the design.

In creating Porto I also wanted to keep what I admire about luxury while eliminating the aspects I find a bit more problematic. For us that translates to quality, craftsmanship, and relationships, and a philosophy that leans more towards restraint than excess. 

Describe Porto in a few words.

Understated, effortless, elegant.

As a carbon-neutral company, the environment is clearly top of mind for you. Tell me in what ways you're introducing sustainable practices as you develop the brand.

From understated, enduring designs to consciously chosen materials, every element is selected with attention given to source, longevity, and sustainability. 

Since our assortment is edited, we generate minimal waste in the research and development stage. The collection is made by hand in small batches at a family-owned factory in Tuscany, which translates to higher quality products and better working conditions for the artisans involved. We use LWG-certified Nappa leather and GOTS-certified organic cotton from local, family-owned suppliers, supporting generational artisanship and minimizing the impact of the transportation of goods. 

Creating anything at all is inevitably destructive to our planet, so we counterbalance our operational footprint with carbon-neutrality, specifically directed at proforestation near our studio in New York. We also plant one tree for every order.

What is your relationship to travel and how did it inspire the brand?

Porto is Latin for “carry.” We make companions for travel, whether it’s the everyday kind (a commute, a run to the bodega) or a weekend trip or European holiday. Each is an experience of going out into the world and negotiating your place in it, even if for only a few minutes. You don’t need to live or even travel to another place to experience that: it can be as simple as walking through a different neighborhood. Even small shifts in your perspective can, over time, amount to something larger, and shape you. Traveling is that for me. So is reading.

Who is the Porto woman? Where does she live? And where does she summer?

The Porto woman (or man) is independent, discerning, and principled. They take a less-is-more approach to their life and appreciate slow living when they can find the time.

What are some of your favorite local spots in NYC?

The Met. MIMI, Locanda Vini e Olii, Gohan-ya, Lucien, Elio’s. McNally Jackson, Mercer St. Books. Film Forum, Metrograph. Central Park.

What is a destination you're most looking forward to visiting or revisiting after Covid?

I planned to visit Formentera last year, and I’ve been craving sun and saltwater, biking on hidden paths and reading in nature, a proper cocktail hour. But also just the experience of absorbing a culture outside of the four walls of my apartment, or my computer. We were spoiled by travel in the pre years, and I struggle with reconciling my urge to go somewhere and my knowledge of its impact. Hikers often adhere to a strict “leave no trace” mandate, and I keep thinking about that and how we can integrate that kind of discipline into the way we move through the world.

What has the slower pace of life this year taught you as a person and as a brand owner?

I experienced a lot of loss compressed into a relatively short period of time, and moving through that in relative isolation and slow motion was difficult. On top of the general tenuousness of our collective health, democracy, way of living. I think it will take a long time for me to see the lessons. I’ll need to separate out the losses from the tenor of this year in general, which I’m not able to do yet. At the same time, there is a sense of freedom and fluidity, curiosity and questioning which shaped the year, by virtue of the fragility of our systems and slow pace. Expectations and norms dissolved in a matter of weeks. So there’s also a feeling of liberation. As a small business owner, it’s a matter of taking one step, and then another and enjoying it. For example, my would-be wedding photographer, who actually is a fashion photographer by profession, shot our first campaign, “The Errand,” between Paris and her hometown Vilnius. I’m proud of how it came together, and the circumstances of the year (a postponed wedding, a lingering deposit) were responsible.

What do you pack in your Porto bag?

Keys, phone, cards, lip balm.