Worn Wisdom
Industry veteran Terry Pillow honors a family legacy with Homer Maker
Written by Jessica Ritz
Photographs by Dewey Nicks
After decades of shaping other brands’ narratives, Terry Pillow is ready to share his own story. The fashion veteran has also learned that work-free retirement is not for him. “I had to do something,” says the Montecito resident, who stepped down as CEO of Tommy Bahama in 2016. He was used to the demands of the executive positions he held at other leading companies, including Chaps Ralph Lauren, Armani Exchange, and COACH, when he lived in New York City and Seattle before relocating to California.
“Working with leather proved to be an apt vehicle to support Central Coast industries and traditions.”
Pillow has launched a project that combines his expertise, personal interests, and the skill of the region’s master craftsmen, based in a 600-square-foot garage in Montecito. Homer Maker was born of Pillow’s creative instincts and the talent he discovered in his own proverbial backyard. Although he wasn’t eager to return to a high-pressure professional life, “I thought I’d do something I enjoy, which is leather goods,” he says, while holding court in the multifunctional Homer headquarters that is a combination atelier, showroom, and clubhouse of sorts. He had been working on sketches that could be turned into a collection with the help of nearby skilled makers. Visiting the saddles on exhibit at the Carriage and Western Art Museum of Santa Barbara inspired him to explore other uses of the material.
The medium proved to be an apt vehicle to support Central Coast industries and traditions. “I started making wine carries because we’re in wine country,” Pillow explains. “When Covid hit, in the horse country there were a lot of saddle makers and leather workers who got hit pretty bad.” Crisis begot opportunity—with optimal outcomes. “I was shocked with the beauty of the workmanship they could produce,” he says.
Homer Maker’s Vintners Collection of single, double, and triple wine carries and multiple bag styles showcases a strain of America’s heritage, but it also reflects Pillow’s understanding of product development. More important, Homer Maker is about the power of storytelling, which the seasoned executive has learned throughout his career—which has taken him from a men’s clothing shop in Conway, in Pillow’s native Arkansas, to Stanley Marcus’ legendary executive training program at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, and eventually to the C suite. “That’s the magic behind those brands: They have a story to tell—not just a product you can market and sell,” he says.
Homer Maker celebrates Pillow’s grandfather, Homer Jackson Pillow, who was a mail carrier in Arkansas for the U.S. Postal Service’s rural delivery. Modest means prompted the elder Pillow to craft his own harness and bridles so that he could make deliveries by horse-drawn coach. He developed a distinctive double-H stamp that stood for Homer Harness, which grew into a cottage business dedicated to quality and community.
“Homer Maker is about the power of storytelling, which the executive learned over the long course of his career.”
More than a century later, those values have been newly synthesized in Homer Maker. “Each country has its signature, and I wanted to make a very American product,” Pillow says. “I can’t make what Hermès makes, but Hermès can’t make what I make. It’s a different look. American saddle makers’ stitching is pronounced, compared to the French. Both have a place in the world.”
The structured, multipocket Kelley Carry tote, which Pillow named for his wife, Kelley Wall Pillow, shares the aforementioned French company’s zero-compromise approach. Pillow sources raw materials from Hermann Oak Leather in St. Louis, one of the last domestic suppliers and tanneries that uses the yearlong vegetable leather-tanning process. The gender-neutral multipurpose bag is “the finest tote in the market today,” he says.
Homer Maker offers another version dubbed the Terry Carry and an evolving line of smaller accessories such as eyeglass lanyards, belts, and saddlebags. Each product follows an iterative process to meet Pillow’s exacting standards and serve as an antidote to fast fashion. The leather’s natural cognac-hued glow is meant to soften, acquire patina, and improve with age. And while Central Coast–based know-how is key, thanks to team members including Steven Soria, Jeff Brierly, and Rafael Adon, Pillow seeks out experts elsewhere as needed; for instance, the wine carries are handcrafted in Montana and Los Angeles.
After all his accomplishments, Pillow embraces this special chance to be involved in every aspect of a personal enterprise that’s the result of hard-earned wisdom. “When I started in the apparel business, there weren’t so many specialists. We used to do it all,” he says. “The happiest I am is when I’m creating and developing product.”
