At Krimson Klover, we’ve been honoring “Slow Fashion” long before it became a movement. Fashion, like food, is best when crafted from scratch. From our HQ team, suppliers, and factories to our customers, nonprofit partners, and retailers—we are committed to building long-standing relationships based on sustainability, passion, and trust.
Each of our seasonal collections is a journey celebrating the talents, skills, relationships, and aspirations of women, artisans, and entrepreneurs around the world. For our Fall/Winter 2024 Collection, you’ll find a lot of inspiration from our travels in Peru. Our partnerships with multi-generational farmers, knitters, and craftspeople in Peru tell a vibrant story that honors tradition.
Peru is a very special place for us. It’s where our founder, Rhonda, started her sweater-making career. Being a knitter herself, Rhonda witnessed the heart and soul these communities put into what they make. She knew these partnerships were different, they were extraordinary.
Why Make Apparel in Peru?
Peru is filled with craftsmanship, art, adventure, natural beauty, and rich history. The Peruvian people take great care with everything they do and they are proud to share their culture. Many live in geographic conditions that make them incredibly resilient—pouring love into everything they create and honoring the hard work they endure to get there. The indigenous communities of Peru center their lives around Pachamama (Mother Earth). It provides them with the perfect balance in all that they do.
These values align with our love of tradition, artisanship, nature, and culture. We prioritize working with natural fibers that are sustainable and better for the environment. This makes Peru the perfect fit—it’s known for elite fibers that we love to use (like baby alpaca and tanguis cotton) and colorful, artisan textiles.
Never mass produced or diluted, this attracts a more discerning customer looking for something original. We’re proud to create unique, luxurious pieces that tell a story and carry so much character.
Our Partner Factories
Our design team spent the first half of the trip in Lima, where our partner factories are based. This is where our garments are knitted and sewn. After a lot of research, conversations, and sample testing to see if it would be a good fit, we found our partner factories in Peru.
Visiting our partner factories is a big part of building strong long-term relationships. These factories don't want to work with just any business. They look for values-driven businesses, building trust and respect in how we work together. We get to know each artisan we work with on a personal level, and it makes all the difference—allowing us to see how they run their operation, innovations they have been working on, and how our garments come to life.
All of our factories in Peru are certified Fair Trade Good Practices. This means they have been assessed and approved on specified requirements including ensuring good working conditions, providing fair pay, and respecting the environment.
We learned a lot about developing and producing with more of an artisan factory in Peru. Many of our partner factories around the world are driven by technical machine knitting, which is a more advanced method. Creating garments with so much hand work, hand looming, and hand dying has been an amazing tradition to bring into Krimson Klover. It rounds out our brand DNA story.
This is all very important to us because we put so much love and care into what we design, we need partners on the same level. That happens with strong relationships. You can really feel the love woven into each garment in every small detail.
Big Love For Baby Alpaca
For the second half of our trip, we headed to Cusco. About 80% of the world's alpaca live around here in the Peruvian Andes. They are one of the only animals that can be raised at these higher elevations, providing a stable income for the farmers that live up in the mountains where very few crops can be grown.
Baby alpaca is not actually from baby alpacas. It refers to the soft, “baby” hairs hidden underneath the main part of the fleece, the softest part of the fleece on any age of alpaca. We love to source baby alpaca. It’s lighter, silkier, and warmer than wool from sheep. This natural, renewable fiber is luxuriously fluffy, it feels like you are wearing a cloud.
The best-quality baby alpaca is found on the happiest alpaca. Their coat is hands down superior when they are in sync with their natural environment and can roam freely—Peru is where this happens. Alpaca yarn is sheared, processed, and dyed locally on small, artisan farms. The traditional ways of alpaca breeding and processing are so deeply ingrained in the culture, they still use methods from Incan times. Trained fiber sorters work with only their hand and sight to determine the different fibers on the animal.
We love to create in Peru because of the artisan and craft approach of the culture.
Bringing Inspiration Back to Krimson Klover
The long history of the Peruvians, the Incas, all of that history and heritage is recorded in textiles. The vibrant colors and patterns, along with the artisan details they add to their creations are all a huge source of inspiration for us.
You’ll find a lot of inspiration from Peruvian textiles throughout our Fall/Winter ‘24 Collection. It shows up in the fringe finish on our Veronica Cardigan. It’s in our chunky baby alpaca knits like the Snowflake Baby Alpaca Sweater with special details like intarsia (knitted in) patterns. The Lana Baby Alpaca Sweater is a great example of the craft of knitting that you get from our artisan makers with its patterned yoke. And the true visibility of the Peruvian culture shows up in the color stories we used for this season—the bright jewel tones in all of our jacquards.
Our next fall/winter collection has even more details inspired by Peru, so keep an eye out when that drops this fall!
Visiting Peru For The First Time
Fly into Lima and stay a couple of days to take in the city life. Lima has a dramatic coastline and the city is filled with bike and running paths. Make sure to try the ceviche here, particularly in the first half of the day when the fish is freshest. If you love avocados, you’ll be in heaven, as just about every dish comes with an entire avocado on top. Try the chico morado, a purple corn drink. If you eat meat, don't skip the lomo saltado dish. And last, but certainly not least, have a pisco sour or two.
Cusco is a true gem. This is where you buy all the textiles! The Sacred Valley is home to the Quechua culture and was the heart of the Inca Empire. It might be one of the most spiritual places on earth. Give yourself a day or two to acclimate before doing any serious hiking. The Sacsayhuaman hike just above Cusco is fantastic and you can spot alpacas grazing in their natural habitat. Take a detour to see the Cristo Blanco that looks out over the city.
Don't forget to get out of Cusco to hike the Inca Trail and see the star of the show—Machu Picchu. If you’re short on time, there’s a train option to get up there and experience it.
The syncretism of ancient Incan history and present-day indigenous cultures with the colonial Spanish influence, all sitting in the middle of modernization, evokes a lot of emotion and reflection and is incredible to experience.
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