Who is behind
This is how it all began
María and Anabel met on a train, traveling at 250 km/h, somewhere between Madrid and Seville. Anabel remembers María's nails painted a beautiful burgundy color. María doesn't remember anything special about Anabel. Months passed, and they continued to see each other. They would meet around a bowl of spicy soup (her weakness) in a riad in Marrakech, discussing episodes of The West Wing and in the streets of Madrid.
Coinciding with the most turbulent days of the 15-M movement in 2011, they decided they had to do something. That "something" was still undefined, although they knew it had three starting points: cosmetics, travel, and the internet. They met in Infamous Types with two red Delfonics Rollbahn notebooks. They started talking. The notebooks began to fill with scribbles that only they understood. The meetings lasted longer and longer.
The rest is history.
Laconicum was born on March 15, 2012. Anabel and María created Laconicum because Laconicum didn't exist.
Anabel Vázquez
When he turned 18 his mother gave him a red Dior and Chanel No. 5. The good woman didn't know what she had done. This gift, this rite of passage, set a precedent. Since then, Anabel has never stopped searching for the perfect lipstick and still believes that the best dress is a perfume.
She holds a degree in Information Sciences (University of Seville) and a Master's degree in Humanities and Social Thought (New York University). She worked in the Communications departments at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the New Museum in New York.
Pleasures: the pools, without exception, The West Wing, add Tabasco to everything, return to Kenya, wander aimlessly, Martirio, the perfumes they take on trips, House Taken, the houses of Barragán, the massages, the rich body creams that smell of lemon and ginger, carrying several lip balms in your purse, watch movies at breakfast time,
In Spain, her career has been as diverse and unorthodox as she is: she has been a business and branding consultant, an Information Architect, Head of Heritage at Loewe, and has published in more media than she can remember. She writes about fashion, hotels, beauty, and trends: "the beautiful side of life," as she sums it up. She is the author of the book Piscinosophy (Books of the K.O, 2023) She always carries cosmetics in her purse to try; if you meet her on the street, she'll force you to try them.
Maria Martinez
In June 2010, Maria went up to the stage at Cipriani in New York, armed with a yellow dress, to collect a Webby Award, the Internet Oscar. It had been won by an idea of his, I wanna go thereAt that moment, he thought about a few things. He remembered a trip to India (the seed of I Wanna Go There), when he realized there was a lack of diverse travel guides, in which travelers shared information and secrets.
María proposed a way of traveling transversally, between the lines, based on discovery. Her career spanning more than 10 years of experience in digital products has led her to work at companies such as Teknoland, McCann Erikson, and Banco Santander. She also worked for several years as a consultant at The Cocktail.
Pleasures: passport-sized notebooks with blank pages, Tratto PEN #3 markers, the first bit of sun on a day at the beach, trying every beauty treatment on the market, cilantro (even better if it's in a taco), discovering shampoos and having your hair washed, soups, citrus perfumes, and walking quickly while listening to Beirut.
Meanwhile, María, a traveler and explorer by profession, found interesting cosmetic products in every destination she visited. Following that award, the Spanish version of the website was launched. mimaleta.com. And the interviews, the conferences and the round tables: there are not many in Spain that have the Webby on a shelf. That night in New York, still clutching her prize, María didn't know that some time later, she would combine her three great, self-confessed passions—the internet, travel, and cosmetics—into a single website: Laconicum.