Alpacalandia

Ethical clothing; fair trade, hand made alpaca knitwear

Rancagua, Chile On Etsy since 2014

248 Sales | 5 out of 5 stars

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Alpacalandia

Ethical clothing; fair trade, hand made alpaca knitwear

Rancagua, Chile | 248 Sales

5 out of 5 stars

Shop owner

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Announcement    We are pleased to confirm that Standard Shipping to the USA, Canada, The United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France and Germany is now fully operational (although it still may take a little longer than normal for your order to reach you due to reduced frequency of flights). This applies to any orders made to said countries using Standard Shipping (US$10 for orders with a value of less than US$35 and Free Shipping for orders of over US$35). Any orders placed with us using either of these services will now ship within 5 business days.

Furthermore, we also have unconfirmed reports from the Chilean postal service that this same service has also resumed to Austria, Belgium, China, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, El Salvador, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and South Africa. However, we have been unable to personally verify this claim ourselves to date.

Most other commercial flights are still temporarily suspended until further notice, affecting our ability to send orders made with Standard Shipping to countries other than the aforementioned in a timely manner, although the situation is evolving.

In the meantime, if you have ordered with us using our Standard Shipping in this period and are waiting on your item to ship to a country not previously mentioned, we request your patience and thank you for your comprehension. We will honor all orders made during this complicated time, and we will ship them as soon as said services to those countries are resumed.

Alternatively, you may find it of interest to know that our Courier upgrade is fully operational and completely unaffected, delivering to any country in the world with the sole exceptions of Cuba and Venezuela. With this in mind, you might wish to consider upgrading your shipping to Courier if you are keen to receive your order as soon as possible. While more expensive for smaller orders, it may be more convenient for orders consisting of multiple items as it incurs a flat fee of just US$40. Furthermore, any orders of over US$200 automatically qualify for a free upgrade to Courier.

You are also more than welcome to get in touch with us if you would like to discuss your order personally, upgrade your shipping category on your order so as to receive it sooner, or even cancel your order and request a refund at any time before it is shipped; no questions asked and no hard feelings!

Alpaca socks, gloves, scarves, hats and other accessories handknit by indigenous Aymara women in Chile with natural, undyed wool. Check out our ethical clothing and fair trade knitting today!

We make handknit alpaca beanies, skull caps, berets, ch’ullu earflap hats, scarves, gloves, glittens, mittens, socks and leggings or boot socks in designs that are both traditional Andean and fashionable, and we also knit llama berets, beanie hats and socks. Most of our designs are unique prototypes, meaning there is only one of each item listed, so if you see something you like, buy it before someone else beats you to it!

Our alpaca and llama accessories are the perfect gift for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or even Father's Day. We are more than happy to answer any questions you have, so feel free to get in touch with any queries you have.

Announcement

Last updated on Nov 6, 2020

We are pleased to confirm that Standard Shipping to the USA, Canada, The United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France and Germany is now fully operational (although it still may take a little longer than normal for your order to reach you due to reduced frequency of flights). This applies to any orders made to said countries using Standard Shipping (US$10 for orders with a value of less than US$35 and Free Shipping for orders of over US$35). Any orders placed with us using either of these services will now ship within 5 business days.

Furthermore, we also have unconfirmed reports from the Chilean postal service that this same service has also resumed to Austria, Belgium, China, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, El Salvador, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and South Africa. However, we have been unable to personally verify this claim ourselves to date.

Most other commercial flights are still temporarily suspended until further notice, affecting our ability to send orders made with Standard Shipping to countries other than the aforementioned in a timely manner, although the situation is evolving.

In the meantime, if you have ordered with us using our Standard Shipping in this period and are waiting on your item to ship to a country not previously mentioned, we request your patience and thank you for your comprehension. We will honor all orders made during this complicated time, and we will ship them as soon as said services to those countries are resumed.

Alternatively, you may find it of interest to know that our Courier upgrade is fully operational and completely unaffected, delivering to any country in the world with the sole exceptions of Cuba and Venezuela. With this in mind, you might wish to consider upgrading your shipping to Courier if you are keen to receive your order as soon as possible. While more expensive for smaller orders, it may be more convenient for orders consisting of multiple items as it incurs a flat fee of just US$40. Furthermore, any orders of over US$200 automatically qualify for a free upgrade to Courier.

You are also more than welcome to get in touch with us if you would like to discuss your order personally, upgrade your shipping category on your order so as to receive it sooner, or even cancel your order and request a refund at any time before it is shipped; no questions asked and no hard feelings!

Alpaca socks, gloves, scarves, hats and other accessories handknit by indigenous Aymara women in Chile with natural, undyed wool. Check out our ethical clothing and fair trade knitting today!

We make handknit alpaca beanies, skull caps, berets, ch’ullu earflap hats, scarves, gloves, glittens, mittens, socks and leggings or boot socks in designs that are both traditional Andean and fashionable, and we also knit llama berets, beanie hats and socks. Most of our designs are unique prototypes, meaning there is only one of each item listed, so if you see something you like, buy it before someone else beats you to it!

Our alpaca and llama accessories are the perfect gift for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or even Father's Day. We are more than happy to answer any questions you have, so feel free to get in touch with any queries you have.

Items

Contact shop owner
248 Sales
257 Admirers
 
Brian O'Sullivan

Contact shop owner

Brian O'Sullivan

Reviews

Average item review
5 out of 5 stars
(50)
See reviews that mention:
quality 8 shipping 6 customer service 10

About Alpacalandia

Sales 248
On Etsy since 2014
  • Our providers
  • Quality control of some recently shorn Alpaca topp
  •  
  • Spinning the yarn
  • Drying the hanks after rinsing

The online boutique where Alpaca fashion, fair trade and tradition meet

Alpacalandia is a family business which specialises in Alpaca clothing and accessories designed and made by indigenous women of the Aymara ethnic group, reflecting traditions of knitting that go back generations if not centuries.

Our products are for the culture-conscious and conscientious shopper who prefers fashionable fair-trade accessories, and our alpaca wool is sourced from a local alpaca farm here in Chile's central valley or from indigenous communities in Chile's northern highlands (we mostly use wool from the Huacaya breed).

Our founders originally started out in Rancagua, Chile as informal traders selling our knitting for an extra income. However, we soon saw that the garments we had made in our traditional designs sold particularly well and even more so if they were in Alpaca. We were then inspired to build a brand and we began uploading our products on e-commerce websites such as Etsy (where you can still buy our handmade products) and Ebay (where our prototype scarves are now sold). This helped us generate sales to new customers in the United States, the UK, Australia and Canada, to positive reviews.

The next step was the gradual, light industrialisation of the business, with various trips to Sao Paulo, Brazil for training and to procure machinery and accessories. In addition to these, we also gained some valuable contacts which lead to some success there with our nascent machine-knit scarves after acquiring our first knitting and sewing machines.

Finally, we relaunched our website to sell our machine-knit products to the world, starting with our scarves. In the meantime, you can view the full range of our products on Instagram and Flickr, and we are always more than happy to answer any questions via Convo here on Etsy, so please feel free to contact us!

Shop members

  • Brian

    Customer Service, Shipper

    I am an Irish immigrant to Chile and am the legal representative of the company. I'm responsible for handling orders, administration and customer service.

  • Florencia

    Owner, Designer, Creator

    Florencia is my wife and knits most of the berets that we sell. She is originally from Bolivia but lived in Italy before coming to Chile, and this has undoubtedly added to her flair for the fusion of fashion and tradition in her knitting.

  • Erlinda

    Designer, Creator

    Erlinda knits most of the beanies and baby clothes that we sell. Her son models our ponchos.

  • Milta

    Creator, Designer

    Milta is from the municipality of Colchane, which lies in the highlands of northern Chile at an altitude of 3700 meters above sea level. She knits our socks and also has a stall at the Indigenous Art Exposition Centre in Santiago.

  • Lidia

    Creator, Designer

    Lidia is from Arica in northern Chile. Like Milta, she has a stall at the Indigenous Art Exposition Centre in Santiago. She is also the representative of the Asscociation of Aymara Craftswomen for Santiago.

  • Maclovia

    Creator, Designer, Model

    Maclovia lives in Santiago and makes most of our crocheted products and baby booties. She is also one of our two resident models. Her one-year old son also models hats and boots from time to time.

  • Rebeca

    Creator, Designer

    Rebeca helps spin our wool and knit berets. Her son and daughter model our sweaters, cardigans and ponchos.

  • Noelia

    Model

    Noelia is our resident model and is currently studying law with her earnings from this venture.

  • Lucia

    Creator

    Lucia spins our wool.

Shop policies