Havana-na-na-na? More like Cuyana, ya-ya-ya. If you’re tuned into Meghan Markle’s wardrobe, you already know this brand for its leather totes and other sleek products. What you might not know is how co-founders Karla Gallardo (she / her) and Shilpa Shah (she / her) built this celeb-loved label in the first place.

We talked with the fashion queens about how heritage backs their brand, why micro-manufacturing is worth the effort, and who has the final say on disagreements.

How did you two meet?
SHILPA: It was very serendipitous. I was considering going to business school, so I went to visit Stanford where Karla was a second year. I was randomly taken on a tour to her class, where I introduced myself as a UI designer and mother. Karla was working on a project where she needed a UI designer, and the target consumer was mothers! I helped with her project, she helped me with the records for school when I decided to go, then we kept in touch.

Where did the idea for Cuyana come from?
KARLA: When I moved from Ecuador to the US, I realized people had a lot more than we had back home, but those products didn’t feel as complete as they could’ve been—whether because of quality or a lack of heritage. We realized there was an opportunity for a brand to have a stronger connection with the consumer.
SHILPA: Karla started working on Cuyana feverishly around May 2011. She already knew she was creating something huge, but she wanted someone to share the experience with. Right after she came back from [a supplier trip in] Peru, she came to Berkeley where I was an MBA student and started telling me about the opportunity. These were the days before Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) was a thing, so I didn’t really see myself in fashion, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. She’s quite the salesperson [laughing], so she brought me on board in December of 2011.

Does your upbringing factor into your business decisions?
SHILPA: Oh, a thousand percent—from the work ethic to our desire to make something that didn’t exist. Many of these DTC brands make things the same, but we blew all that up. Instead of big, massive supply chains based in Asia, we have micro-supply chains based around the world.
KARLA: Ones that celebrate heritage. Rather than building a supply chain that was about automating production processes, we went back to the roots of how products were made from real craftsmen and figured out how to scale. With leather from Italy, cashmere from Scotland, alpaca from Peru, and straw from Ecuador.

How has working together affected your friendship?
KARLA: It made our friendship. We’ve built this company for 10 years now, and a lot of things have happened, not only with Cuyana but also in our personal lives. We’ve had babies, we’ve had losses, we’ve had—
SHILPA: marriages! We’ve figured out a way to never let the professional infringe on the personal. That’s been the takeaway. One doesn’t have a bearing on the other. Both are equally important and need to be emphasized, always.

How do you resolve professional disagreements?
SHILPA: In the early years, it was a subjective opinion of us trying to figure out what Cuyana needed because she was a baby. Now that the brand is so defined, it becomes more obvious what the right path is. We go back to the documents and the data, and that’s usually the decision-maker.