Craft

Every LS Alpaca shawl is made by one weaver, on a loom she tensions with her own body, over the better part of a week. This is who she is and what she does.

The making

Six stages, and no machine at the finish

From the animal to the fringe: six stages, and one year of growth before any of them begin.

01

Shorn once a year

Hand shears, once in the warm season.

02

Graded by eye and hand

Sorted by touch, to within three microns.

03

Washed, barely

No lanolin, so almost no scouring.

04

Spun to hold, not to bind

Enough twist to hold, not to stiffen.

05

Woven on the awana

A week on the backstrap loom.

06

Fringe twisted strand by strand

Cut, pressed, twisted by hand.

40

Hours at the loom

From dressing the warp to the last knot of fringe, for a single shawl.

1

Weaver per shawl

One pair of hands from first thread to last. No piece passes down a line.

3–5 cm

Woven per hour

The web grows slowly. Two metres of cloth is most of a working week.

Small

Batches, not seasons

The workshop makes what it can make without changing how it works. When a shade is gone, it is on the loom.

The human story

Weaving is inherited, not taught in a school

The women who make these shawls learned at their mother's loom, as she learned at hers. In the Andes the craft has passed down that way for centuries — through the hands, in the house, without a pattern written down.

We work with a small workshop rather than a factory, pay by the piece rather than the hour, and take what a season allows. It is why the shawls arrive in small batches rather than by the hundred, and why the price is what it is.

Forty hours of one woman's work, and a fringe knotted one strand at a time.

Where it happens →See the collection →