Mayu | Ethical Sourcing

Step 1: Kate places an order with the knitters and wires the wages, which are determined by the artisans themselves. The women have to travel 2.5 hours by bus to the nearest city to receive their hard-earned pay. Mayu is a member of the Fair Trade Federation so our payment process adheres to the Fair Trade principles and practices.

Step 2: The alpaca wool is sent on the bus from Lima to the home of Mayu’s artisans. It is an 8-hour bus ride from the coast up into the mountains. This trip is not for those prone to car sickness -lots of curves and lots of cliffs. At least there is excellent Huayno music on the bus...

Step 3: The raw materials are carried from the small bus stop to the artisans' workshop. The alpaca wool is prepped and wound into skeins and evenly distributed to the artisans so they can start knitting our alpaca accesories.

Step 4: Mayu’s artisans knit in their own homes, on the street corners or wherever they like. They are excellent multi-taskers. There is no child labor involed. Instead, Mayu's artsians are able to take better care of their children as they have more flexible work schedules.

Step 5: After each alpaca accessory is completed, the artisans add the finishing touches, which include knitting, crocheting and sewing embellishments. They also hand-wash (with baby shampoo) and dry the products in the Andean sun, sew on the tags and do one last quality control inspection. See Mayu's knitters completing these tasks.

Step 6: Once ready, all of the orders are placed into large plastic, reusable potato sacks (yup, costales) and one of the artisans takes the order back down the hill to Lima and flags down a taxi to the FedEX office. Keep in mind, the bags are almost the size of the women.

Step 7: The alpaca apparel is shipped on a plane from Lima to Chicago. Once the FedEX guy rings the dorbell, we receive the items with lots of excitement. We iron and tag them with our eco-friendly materials.

Step 8: From Chicago, the alpaca clothes are shipped to their respective new homes and our customers email us telling us how "beautiful, soft, luxurious and high-quality" our fair trade alpaca accessories are! Read our customer testimonials.

Step 9: The new owners look super chic, hip and eco-fabulous in their Mayu alpaca clothes. They receive one compliment after another and usually come back for more.