ACCESSORIES DESIGNER Fiona Kotur Marin is the founder of Kotur, the elegant handbag label sold at department stores like Harvey Nichols, Harrods and Bergdorf Goodman. A native New Yorker, Kotur Marin was vice-president of Old Navy before moving to Hong Kong with her husband in 2002. In 2004, she launched a limited edition of brocade clutches that has since grown into a collection of day bags, evening clutches and minaudieres. Kotur Marin sources exotic material like Italian snakeskin, shagreen and tortoiseshells to embellish her delicately constructed clutches. Her penchant for creative artistry is both unique and hereditary: she was exposed to fashion at a young age by her mother Sheila Camera Kotur, a fashion illustrator in the 1970s. In 2008, Vanity Fair inducted Kotur Marin into its international best-dressed hall of fame.

1. Everyday handbag: her own design
2. Weekly updates on sales from major department stores
3. Kotur for Shanghai Tang boxes, which Kotur Marin uses to hide her office junk
4. She collects out of print books like this one by Yves Saint Laurent
5. Colour samples and reference materials, this one for Swarovski stone colours
6. Snakeskin, fabrics, drawings, which she uses to put her collection together
7. Datebook
8. Hermes notebooks. “They’re no longer produced so I have to order them. They have to be accrued over many years”
9. Spiderman sticker. Her sons [she has four] left it when they were doing their homework at her office
10. Illustrations by Kotur Marin’s mother, who illustrates Kotur’s seasonal look book
11. Kotur and her four sons
12. Communication: a US phone, a HK phone and a BlackBerry
13. Letters from fashion editors like Glenda Bailey [Harper’s Bazaar], Anna Wintour [Vogue] and Pamela Fiori [Town & Country]
14. Tear sheets: anything that seems current and interesting. Artists like Alexander Calder inspire her
15. Fountain pens: “I love them, but I buy cheap ones because I always lose them!”

PHOTOGRAPHY / LAURENT SEGRETIER