AOW Insider | Interview: Maria Eladia Hagerman and Maggie Galton of Onora - Balancing Innovation and Traditional Design
This month, I'm delighted to interview Maggie Galton, the co-founder and art historian of one of my all-time favorite brands: Onora. Based in Mexico City, Maggie and her business partner Maria Eladia work closely with artisan communities throughout Mexico to create unique home items. Their pieces strike a delicate balance between innovative and traditional design without ever sacrificing cultural identity. Let’s dive in!
Please tell readers a bit about your journey to starting Onora.
Prior to joining passions in 2013, Maria Eladia and I had been involved in design and handcrafts in different capacities. Maria Eladia, a graphic designer, had been collecting handcrafts since a young child when her parents and five siblings would pile into a station wagon to explore Mexico’s remote archeological sites and important artisanal communities.
Many years later while living in Los Angeles, Maria Eladia felt a great dearth in the representation of fine Mexican handcraft outside of the country, especially surprisingly in a city with such a rich Mexican community. The desire to showcase the exquisite craftsmanship and traditions of her country both at home and abroad became one of her main reasons to join forces with me to form Onora.
I’m a New Yorker but had been living in Mexico for twenty years and had a rich background working with artisans. By the time we met, I had already worked for over 10 years with the Banamex Foundation in the Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art (Grandes Maestros de Arte Popular) program implementing workshops to revive dying craft tradition. I had run a textile innovation and design program for the government institution FONART and had consulted independently for various NGO’s such as Aid to Artisans.
It became clear to me that the survival of handcraft was dependent not only on reviving certain skills and techniques and sharing them with future generations but that it was also crucial to innovate; mindfully tweaking traditional design without sacrificing cultural identity.
The process of joining forces was very organic. Our timing was perfect – the market at that moment was just waking up to the idea of embracing handcrafted pieces. In Mexico the market had been focused on imported goods since the NAFTA agreement back in the 90’s and suddenly the tides changed, the younger generations were finally looking within, embracing and celebrating everything made in Mexico, but especially handcraft.
I realize you have a beautiful shop, and that you sell both retail and wholesale. Why have you decided not to offer FOB Mexico pricing and offer custom design?
Due to the nature of the product – small volume productions of complex and diverse shapes, sizes and materials, we cannot offer a general FOB Mexico price list. However, we do ship upon demand usually by FEDEX and the client pays for shipping and packing.
Regarding custom design, we work very closely with interior designers and architects to develop specific products for hotels, restaurants and private residences. These are the most challenging and enriching projects because the needs of the clients are always very specific and the timeframe is usually quite tight. We must align the needs of the clients while remaining respectful of the artisans’ techniques, process’ and timeframe.
What are some of the greatest lessons you’ve learned as it relates to working with artists in this business?
Oh, we have learned so many lessons! First is patience. I think one of the most important lessons we have learned is to honor and value time, to never rush the production cycle because time is essential for the creation of high-quality crafts. It is also crucial to have a firm grasp and understanding of the skills and techniques of each artisan in order to give realistic timeframes to our clients.
It is also important to have very clear and orderly internal process’ within the company to map out every phase of product development, from the makings of a prototype to the ordering, production and invoicing of an entire collection. To be able to achieve this, one must be very well organized and disciplined otherwise the clients will not get their products in a timely manner.
Lastly, it is really important to be consistent when working with artisans. Onora has been collaborating with the same groups of artisans for many years. Our commitment is long term and our goal is to create new collections with groups every year while maintaining a constant production of our basic lines. This is the only way the industry can stay sustainable and strong.
Do you think it's crucial to design all of your goods as a way to stand apart from the crowd or is it possible to simply rely on curation and styling with a strong brand and marketing presence?
Both are important. We design 70% of our product lines and yes, we think this allows us to stand apart from other brands. We have created a strong identity that is deeply rooted in the past yet unarguably dialogues with the present. We are a contemporary brand with ancestral ties. We are casual yet sophisticated. These dichotomies sustain our brand and reflect the complexities of Mexico’s complex and rich culture.
We like to offer a curation that includes traditional pieces in order to share with our audience the origins of our designs and points of inspiration. Because the collections we design are never far from the traditional design, we feel it is essential to maintain this link and allow for the cultural identity, be it Purepechá, Tztotzil or Zapoteco, to be the protagonist of the piece. There is a saying in Spanish ‘De tal palo, tal astilla’ which translates basically to ‘the apple never falls far from the tree’.
Mexico City is quite the hot spot these days! Why do you think that is the case?
It really is! It has become such an important cosmopolitan and creative hub. People from all over the world are moving here to be part of the innovative fields of design, gastronomy, architecture, music, film and art. As we mentioned before, the older generations due to NAFTA tended to look abroad for inspiration, the younger Mexican generations and leaders in the fields prior mentioned are now looking within the country and celebrating its richly textured cultural fabric.
The impact has only been positive. Chefs like Enrique Olvera (Pujol) and Jorge Vallejo (Quintonil) commission all their dishes and tableware to Mexican craftspeople, award-winning architects and interior designers seek out handcrafted amenities and textiles to adorn their interiors from top hotels like Chablé Yucatan to the Ritz Carlton in Baja California. Movies like Cuarón’s Roma are shedding an important spotlight on indigenous people and their importance to Mexico’s social fabric. Karla Martinez de Salas, the Editor and Chief of Vogue Latin America is now spotlighting indigenous women like the Mendoza Sisters of Oaxaca (chefs and artisans from Teotilán del Valle) for the cover page of the magazine.
What are the pros and cons that have come from artisan as a rising trend?
The demand for pieces that are authentic and heavy with cultural meaning and good design is high. This is positive. The cons are that some people may cut corners to satisfy this market desire or worse abuse it. For example, some companies in order to cut costs are printing fabric with traditional Otomi embroidery to create pillows for large hotels instead of commissioning the Otomi artisans to hand embroider the pillows. The appropriation of designs is a problem and can manifest itself in many ways.
When thinking about working with artisans in Mexico, what do you think is important for buyers entering this sector to know and ask themselves before starting up a business?
We think it is essential to understand the culture, history, economy and surroundings of the artisans with whom we choose to work. We always try and start with a general diagnostic that unearths the social structure, agricultural cycles, living conditions and livelihood of each group. Most artisans do not rely on their craft alone as their main source of income, most rely on the land and depend on agriculture in order to sustain their families. It is imperative to know when the important harvest and planting seasons are planned and the impact of that on craft production time. It is also imperative to understand Mexico’s weather patterns and its effects on the artisanal production calendar. For example, the heavy summer rains will slow down textile production as the loom becomes heavier with humidity, clays take longer to dry before it can be fired, and lacquer will also take twice as long to set during the rainy reason.
Religious festivities are important in the fabric of most rural communities. From the Day of the Dead celebration to the birthdays of Patron Saints or the Easter holiday, each represent an important lull in production time. One has to be in touch with the ebb and flow of these celebrations and know when it is appropriate or not to schedule production time.
An understanding of materials and raw goods is also essential. Making sure that they are sustainably sourced is key.
Lastly, it is important to be aware of the political climate. As power shifts, for example, from one cartel to another so does the security of different regions. This has had a huge impact on artisanal production in places like Guerrero, Jalisco and Michoacán, which have become so dangerous that many artisans refuse to leave their villages and communities.
Do you think retail is imperative for your business? Do you think you could survive solely off of wholesale?
It is a combination of the two. The retail space helps a lot because it serves as a platform to showcase all our product lines, diverse materials and how they can be put together in the curation of a Mexican lifestyle. We actually do very little wholesale and focus more on custom design projects for hotels, restaurants and interiors. We pay our artisans well and fairly, so we have just margins. Our wholesale price is more of a discount that for most retail shops is not very attractive in terms of profit margins. The products are in fact very beautiful and unique which obviously makes them easy to sell in shop. However, the fact that we have been commissioned to design for prestigious chefs, exclusive hotels and private residences has helped to make our products even more desirable.
What makes our numbers work are the custom design projects where we are dealing with larger volumes within a fixed timeframe. Unlike a collection that is produced for the store where we have to wait and see if it will sell, the custom design projects are creations that are sold upon initiating production.
Where do you see the artisan sector moving in both Mexico and abroad?
Regretfully, the artisan sector both in Mexico and abroad is dwindling. In Mexico the situation is complex. On one hand the market is inundated with cheap imports from the Far East and India, which are slowly replacing handcrafted items. Plastic is replacing clay. Synthetic fibers are supplanting natural ones. Traditional clothing that was once hand-loomed is being substituted by industrialized fabrics. Secondly, younger generations are abandoning their villages and communities to migrate to the capital, Mexico City, or farther north to the United States in search of better paying jobs. As a result, ancestral techniques and traditions that were passed down to them by their parents are rapidly lost. Thirdly, there is a growing scarcity of raw materials such as indigo, royal palm, tropical woods and caracol purpura to name a few, that is having a negative impact on the production of artisanal goods.
If we can achieve fair pay across the board so that artisans and their families can live with dignity, then there will be no need to migrate. Families can stay rooted in their communities and pass down their traditions and knowledge to future generations. If we can protect our environment with strong policies and laws, then artisans will have an abundance of natural resources to work with. If we as designers are mindful and respectful in our collaborations, we open doors to new possibilities.
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