Latin fever

Maria Estrada is very proud of her heritage and she's on a mission to make Uruguay a name in the luxury handbag sector. Ignes Bags, the company she started last year with her ex-investment banker brother, is a small Uruguay-based business, which designs its bags primarily with British women in mind.

"I know that urban women today are going to do 1,001 things in a day. My bags help them do those things. They are practical, but also beautiful," she says. Estrada is also confident that her bags, made from rare South American leathers, will appeal to women keen to enjoy exclusivity at an affordable price.

Better still, all the leather used by Ignes comes from ethical sources: "It's all a by product of the Uruguayan meat industry and it's all from free-range animals."