What inspired us to “La Vida Bella” Collection
Our aim is to create the prefect every day staple with a twist. Pieces that you want to wear over and over again for decades to come.
We want to empower women via our creations. We hope you feel beautiful wearing our pieces and be comfortable at the same time.
We make pieces that we want to wear every day and that work with most things that we already own, too.
Our colours are inspired by nature – greens, earthy tones and the occasional rainbow.
Our fabrics come from nature – we don’t use any manmade fibres. We love linen, some pieces are better in a linen cotton blend because it makes them move softer.
We are using high quality pure alpaca and baby alpaca wool for our knits and added a couple of styles in organic cotton.
Bringing this collection to life was more challenging than any prior collection. With a worldwide pandemic and a very serious lockdown situation in Peru we were forced to sit back and rethink our values.
Because of the immense support of pour beautiful customers we decided to launch the pieces that we have already created on pre order. They are in Peru waiting to be shipped early next week.
We are paying our two seamstresses and two embroidery artisans living wages which enables them to support their families and kids and we want to keep on doing that.
The name of our collection is “La Bella Vida” – which means the beautiful life. We think there’s beauty in so many things – there’s an endless supply of beauty in nature, in the quiet moments, in every breath we take.
Even in times of hardship like these there’s Beauty. Stepping back and focusing on what’s important to you, what brightens up your day and the simple daily rituals and tasks transformed into something special. Appreciation for the slow moments. Simple every day magic.
We hope that we can brighten up your day with our creations.
We have made a few changes in our modus operandi in order to make our handcrafted pieces more accessible to you in these uncertain times. As we decided to sell own via our own platforms and keep our production small – we were able to adjust our prices in your favour.
We hope you understand that some of our pieces are made to order especially for you – and due to the current circumstances may take up to a few weeks to get to you. This means there is no over production or dead stock, our lovely team will keep on having regular work and you get your piece made with Love.
We hope that makes you cherish your Andean Collective piece even more.
Thank you xx
If you would like to know more about who we are and why we chose to produce in Peru you can scroll all the way down and read more.
We are Ursula, Lucia and Anita. Lucia and Ursula are mother and daughter – Peruvian natives, grown up between Cusco and Lima.
Ursula our Business manager is an architect and has run her own studio in Lima after Uni. She’s made Byron Bay her home over six years ago. With her background in architecture she has great eye for detail and an in depth understanding of shapes and forms. Her love of Art and Design combined with her experience in architecture urged her to create a brand with values that go beyond trends whilst acknowledging theses.
Lucia has run her own businesses in Cusco and Lima for decades. She’s always been working closely with local artisans. She has a great love for her country Peru and its culture, traditions and artisans. This enables her to communicate her ideas respectfully and clearly.
She has been successfully managing our production Lima from the start.
Our two main seamstresses Marina and Elenit became friends over time and are regular guests at her home in Lima.
Anita, our Designer and creative Manager has worked in fashion since high school – from model, to Store manager and Buyer of a Fashion house in Germany to studying her career in Fashion Design in Buenos Aires, Argentina an learning the art of shoe making after uni to working for different Fashion brands in Australia and successfully running her own businesses internationally. She has been working in areas of Marketing, Design and Production in a handful of companies and maintained these relationships into her life as freelancer.
She was born in Romania, a communist dictatorship at the time. She escaped with her parents and brothers as a kid into Germany. As money was short in her early years she had her aunts and grandmas handmaking and knitting her clothes to her own designs inspired by characters of books she was reading.
Combining her child hood experience with her knowledge and expertise in the industry and her innate passion for handmade pieces led to joining forces with Ursula and Lucia in Andean Collective.
We are women that grew up with strong women and want to help empowering women internationally.
The women we are working with as much as the women that wear our creations.
Lots of Love from all of us,
Ursula, Lucia, Anita, Elenit, Marina, Marcelina and Eladia