PERU
We love the relationships we have built with our factories and we want to take you behind the scenes and share their stories with you. This season sees us working for the first time with the beautiful natural fibre of alpaca and wool from the highlands in Peru, outside Lima.
Peru is a textile country by tradition with the workers are so skilled in many different techniques. Many of the hand knitters are women and knit at home providing for their family. In the highlands specially in Ayacucho there is a strong tradition of hand embroidery which you will see in our ESME floral crew.
Our knitwear is handcrafted from baby alpaca; the baby hairs from grown alpacas. They are usually from the chest and belly of the alpaca and are soft and silky. They are shed naturally with the animals not being harmed.
We pride ourselves on the most responsible way of producing clothes with small runs of production so we can limit unwanted stock and waste. This collection from Peru truly is hand made and we hope our customers admire the quality, care and thought gone into each piece.
Our Factory
Please meet the wonderful Andrea, she is a textile designer who studied in Milan and Madrid. She returned to Peru after studying and worked in one of the biggest cotton mills.
An opportunity then arose to start working with our friends at Wool and the Gang. And her love for yarn and knits fully began…
She then founded her studio LALANA in 2017 with the idea to help small brands develop and have the opportunity to produce smaller runs.
“I enjoy the development process and thought there was a niche market producing for designers and stores being more flexible, accepting small runs and helping with this process and sourcing here in Peru.”
Andrea now works with a team of women who have been with her more than 10 years.
"They are amazing women, mothers and super skilled knitters. They produce the samples and are head of their groups. Each head knitter manages between 6 to 40 knitters. They each have to train and teach the group and then have the responsibility of the production."
At the studio we then gather together to sample, do finishing touches, label, pack and all the details before shipping garments. We feel so lucky to have been introduced to Andrea and her wonderful army of women and hope this is a start of our journey together..