Founded on the Gold Coast by Sierra Koepele, marie sans peur celebrates self-expression and self-confidence through thoughtfully hand-crafted and engineered designs. Marie, Sierra’s middle name, is one she shares with multiple generations of her family; it pays homage to both her heritage and her massive French language obsession.
“sans peur” translates from French as “without fear”.
At marie sans peur, we like to think of ourselves as “Fearless Marie”, a nod to embracing ourselves for who we are, for trying new things, for facing challenges with resolve, for getting back up when we fall down, and for doing it all in impeccable personal style.
It could be said that marie sans peur started as a suggestion thrown out over lunch at a Williamsburg food joint in mid-2017, but Sierra, then a newly-graduated accessories designer, had no idea how to start a business or if she even wanted to stay in the fashion industry.
marie sans peur invites you to be BOLD.
Fast forward a year later, and despite having moved far from the fashion capitals of the world, Sierra’s desire to create quality handbags had anything but disappeared. Armed with a second-hand industrial sewing machine and her partner’s old blue jeans, she began constructing her signature up-cycled tote bags while dreaming of bringing more complex designs to life in leather.
When her sculptural aesthetics outgrew both the flatbed machine and the denim, she turned to hand-stitching her more intricate leather handbags, a technique she still incorporates in many of her designs today. With the success of the Franges cross-body bags, a limited-edition style that saw more than 60 hours’ worth of cutting, hole-punching, and hand-stitching per bag, Sierra finally bit the bullet to purchase a new industrial cylinder arm machine, on which all subsequent marie sans peur products are manufactured.
marie sans peur strives to offer the perfect combination of fashionable, functional art through our handmade handbags and small leather goods (aka SLGs), and through which, to champion slow fashion, small business, and fearless self-expression.
Meet the founder
Sierra has always had an affinity for creative projects, niche sports, and foreign language. Art, specifically drawing, was her first creative love; over time, writing, music, and design have joined the ranks.
Living abroad in Québec, France, Spain, and now Australia, have all informed her creative, athletic, and entrepreneurial endeavours, and instilled a passion for language learning and cultural immersion. Her pursuits as a competitive athlete in both fencing and martial arts have seen hours of practice become precise execution, overcoming opponents with whom she’s typically at a size disadvantage.
It was with this same precision and determination that Sierra approached her studies in Accessories Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and that she now implements in her work as a designer and small business owner of marie sans peur.
From conceptualising to pattern-making, prototyping to final production, Sierra is involved in every step of the development process, and takes pride in creating unique and quality leather accessories from start to finish. She enjoys making sophisticated, functional, and sustainable products that empower her customers to stand out from the crowd.