Meet Laura Dotolo: An Interview with Clutch Made's Founder

Meet Laura Dotolo

Designing, developing, and manufacturing so many different products for our clients is a a natural extension of everything Laura has been doing during her design career over the last 25 years of living and working in New York City.

She started as a fashion stylist upon moving to NYC and has always found Manhattan to be the perfect canvas on which to create. She feels that there is always a hum on the streets here, a hum that gets into your veins, and motivates you to bring to fruition a dream. She shares that passion with every new client she meets.

I sat down with Laura to get to know her more, and this is what she said...

Where did you grow up and how long have you been living in New York?

I grew up in a lovely little seaside New England town in Rhode Island. I have been living in New York City now for over 25 years.

Can you describe a typical day or week in the office?

A typical day in the New York City office can be super crazy busy and filled with every task on hand. It usually entails anything from visiting one of our printers to purchasing leather from our local vendors, ordering hardware, meeting with team members, reviewing samples, and shipping productions---every day is so different and always a lot of fun!

When did you start Clutch Made?

I started Clutch Made back in 2012 because there was a huge need for a manufacturing services agency that provided a one-stop creative and manufacturing shop. I envisioned a factory with a design agency built in~ a place where a client could work with a design team to make their product as well as design and source all their needs and then actually make the samples and run the productions. There was nothing like this and no one was doing this in the accessory space at the time. There was a huge need for it, and really still is, which one can witness with the large number of clientele that we service from around the country. I knew Clutch Made was a great idea and would be able to offer such special services to anyone looking to get started designing and making accessories in the USA. The business model began with consultations, and as we built it, we kept adding more and more services over time with a bigger team of local artisans.

What is The Clutch Made Factory Now?

The Clutch Made Factory in its current business model has become the perfect one-stop shop for designing and making bags and accessories here in the United States. So, we do offer all the services for manufacturing with very talented makers, an amazing team of designers, as well as branding specialists, and sourcing experts, plus a great community of US vendors and suppliers. All of what we built has become part of our Clutch Made community that supports the local business economy, We now truly excel and are amazing at what we do. And we truly enjoy it. That is the most important part. I credit hardware work, setting targets and goals and building good business relationships.

What is your favorite part of the business?

My favorite part of the business with Clutch Made is working with people to make the ideas they have in their heads come to life ~ taking their choices of raw materials & turning them into their design vision is just an amazing process every single time it happens. So, bringing every single client's ideas to life every single time is just so fulfilling and really so fun!

Meet Laura