Why I Wrapped an iPhone in a Ferrari's Interior

By Pejman Zare, founder of Luriax

Luriax did not start with a business plan. It started with a pair of suede loafers.

I was getting dressed one morning, matching the loafers with a suede belt, and a thought landed that would not leave: why can't the things I carry every day match the things I wear? A suede phone case. A suede watch band. The same texture, carried through.

So I went looking. What I found was either cheap fabric pretending to be suede or products with no elegance at all. And the deeper I looked, the more I understood why. Real suede is beautiful and completely unfit for the life of a phone case. It drinks water. Oil marks it permanently. It wears thin exactly where your fingers hold it. Nobody sells real suede phone cases because real suede cannot survive being one.

The answer was parked in a garage

I am a driving enthusiast. I always have been, and the cars I love most, Porsche and Ferrari, kept showing me the answer without my noticing. Their steering wheels and interiors are wrapped in a material that looks and feels like suede but lives a completely different life: Alcantara.

A steering wheel takes more abuse than almost any surface you touch. Sun, sweat, friction, years of daily grip. Alcantara was engineered in Italy for exactly that. It is water-resistant, stain-resistant, and it keeps its character with almost no care at all. Everything that makes suede impractical, solved, with nothing lost in the touch.

So I made a phone case and a watch band out of it. For myself, for my own wardrobe. They worked better than I imagined, not just with one outfit but every day, for years. People kept asking where I got them. There was no answer to give them. That became Luriax.

Why we still make each piece by hand

From the first case, every Luriax piece has been handcrafted individually: cut, wrapped, and finished by a person, then laser engraved if you want it to carry your initials, a name, a date. Engraving is complimentary on everything we make, because the whole point was always personal. The brand exists because I wanted something made for me. Each piece should feel that way to whoever orders it.

Style was never about looking good to me. It is about expressing who you are and feeling confident in it. A phone is in your hand a hundred times a day. It might as well say something.

The longer story

I have talked about the journey, the risks, and the lessons in a few interviews, if you want the unpolished version: Bold Journey on how Luriax began, Bold Journey on lessons and legacy, and two conversations with CanvasRebel, here and here.

Or skip the reading and start where I did: with the material. Why Alcantara tells the story of the fabric itself, and the collection is where it ends up.