We, as shoppers, often take so much for granted. We walk into a store, see something we like, make the purchase and rush out the door, onto the day’s next task. We’re not always aware of the store’s origins or its role in the community. On Cape Ann, mindful shopping is encouraged. Take a few minutes to chat with a shop owner or associate. You may find a compelling backstory—or a tale of adventure, romance and grassroots brilliance. All three are found at Mariposa.
Mariposa is Spanish for butterfly. And just as a butterfly is essential to the planet’s ecosystem, pollinating gardens and supporting the environment, CEO/founder Livia Cowan’s Mariposa does something similar for its expansive community. Supporting artisans in Mexico, across Europe and on Cape Ann, Mariposa is built upon a foundation of loyalty and longevity. It’s a complex operation of commerce and community engagement and Cowan and her team tackle all challenges with confidence, humor and joy. Their charming, cheerful renovated barn in Manchester-By-The-Sea displays the line’s hand-selected items for the home—including tableware, glassware, serving pieces, frames—ranging in price from everyday accessible to luxury. Need a wedding gift? Holiday-themed accent pieces? An engraved frame acknowledging a stellar achievement or a sweet moment? Perhaps something to simply say “thank you.” Cowan and her team meticulously curate each piece and each design until every detail exceeds their expectations.
Doing well by doing good, as the adage goes, is also on display at Mariposa, which was incorporated in 1984. On Saturday mornings, half of the showroom is cleared to make room for yoga mats. Yes, the space is that calming and welcoming. Friends and yoga devotees gather regularly or drop in for a refresh, and collectively re-connect to the earth and themselves. It’s a fitting extension of the mini-empire that Cowan has created. It was her early and unrelenting commitment to recycling glass, specifically Coca-Cola bottles, that helped sparked what would become a bedrock of Mariposa’s founding principles: honor the earth and one another.
Which is why the act of “shopping” feels different at Mariposa. Each item has a story behind it, harking back to Cowan’s pre-college road trips across Mexico with her sister Deborah, an intrepid traveler, who, in 1975, originally opened La Mariposa on Rockport’s Bearskin Neck with the artisan crafts she procured on their trips. “We were definitely brought up entrepreneurially,” says Cowan. “Deborah and I would drive all over Mexico, in a pickup truck, a camper that my father sweetly provided to us. Every region had their own craft. So, we’d go and place orders, and then we would drive back around, pick the orders up, and then bring them back home. That’s how the business got started.” And, influenced by Deborah’s independent spirit—“Through her, I got into, you know, the worldliness [of it all]”—Cowan found herself spending a few years in Mexico, studying at university, becoming fluent and forging relationships with artisans that would span generations. “As it grew, I sort of took it on. Deborah ended up moving to Manhattan, and so I just took on this business and started doing things more internationally. I went off to France and started doing very high-end cutlery, beautiful and handmade. Then I went to Italy for glassware…” Cowan’s eye for exquisite handcrafts sharpened along with her business savvy. Mariposa’s reputation grew both on Cape Ann and across the globe.
“To me, it’s a level playing field,” Cowan explains, “because to be a craftsperson, you need to be centered, patient, and proud of what you do. I think often it’s family oriented.” Some of Cowan’s ceramics artisans represent “three generations of ceramics companies,” Cowan continues. “I’d spend a week just working on different designs, sitting with all these people, and I’d get teary proud of what they were doing. I’d take an old fashioned-looking [item] like the metals, that we’re actually known for now, and try and modernize them, grow them, challenge them. So, we grew together to get to a new place with that craft and I think that’s the basis of the business today.”
That and a passion for recycling. Cowan and her sister saw discarded bottles throughout their travels. “One of the first things I started with was recycled Coca-Cola bottles converted into glass.” Cowan’s epiphany was life- and planet-altering. She adds, with a gracious modesty, that she was “one of the first people to introduce that in the U.S. as a high-end kind of thing. We created products with them that were functional.…That was the commitment… sort of a passion thing, and it’s what attracted me to the recycled metals. It was an obvious extension to what we were doing, in that it was recycled materials, but converted into art. When you look at something being sculpted, that’s one of the things, and obviously ceramics, that doesn’t hurt the environment. So, it’s really that connection between family and the arts.” Inside Mariposa & Friends, Cowan and her team pay tribute to these artist partnerships through photographs. These stories are meant to be told.
Online sales, e-commerce partnerships, selling to more than 700 stores nationwide, Mariposa is big yet simultaneously small and intimate. Because Cowan makes it look easy. Her primarily woman-centric team is unassuming, in love with their work and its impact. “That’s probably one of the biggest strengths we have.…There’s a lot of fierce women running the company. And my Dad always said, ‘hire your weaknesses’, you know? Complementary skill sets can give strength. It’s the root of every successful business.”
That, along with Cowan’s belief that “everything is interwoven and interconnected,” including the Mariposa barn itself and its role in the community. “It’s not just a retail space, it’s a gathering space, in an event space. It has great energy,” adds marketing manager Heidi Clemens. That energy has inspired the team to engage the community through, in addition to yoga, various pop-ups, wine tastings, even regularly-scheduled Mahjong events. Next on the list—pet photography. “We want it to be a hub of the arts… It’s a natural extension, most definitely, of our core business,” says Cowan.
At the heart of the Mariposa enterprise is also local pride. A Gloucester resident since age six, Cowan believes in Cape Ann. “Our business is based in Manchester, but I’m a Gloucester girl,” she laughs. “I like the guts of Gloucester. I like the spectrum of people it draws from…” She breathes deeply on walks through her village of Annisquam, and finds rejuvenation when gazing at the Gloucester breakwater. Taking in the expansiveness of the horizon and applying that energy toward her work. “I think that it’s all part of the fabric of collecting people. That and just wanting to be open.” Like the butterfly, opening its wings. “You want the world to come to you as much as you want to go out into the world.”
