B. May bags

Barbara May started with pillows and has found her way to bags, leveraging her fine arts degree into a new life as a designer of fine leather goods. Originally from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Barbara is now firmly entrenched in Petoskey, where she’s headquartered her B. May Bags business.

“It’s a smooth and simple look,” May says. “In fact, all of our bags are very simple and clean; we don’t use a lot of hardware, so they’re light and minimalist.”

Today, she finds her inspiration from art and her line consists of beautiful unstructured handbags with a focus on texture and simplicity.