Functional Art created from Peru’s Cultural Traditions
Are you interested in sourcing high quality and unique gift items, home décor and fashion accessories?
Looking for products with an ethnic twist from regions far away unknown to your competitors?
Brand[TRADE] has cornered the market for identifying and marketing cultural, spiritual and ethnic traditions and translating these into functional arts, home décor and fashion accessories. The results are stunning. Drawing on marketing expertise and partnerships with Canadian designers, Brand[TRADE] is helping small-scale artisans access the North American Market with current designs that appeal to the aesthetic trends of consumers.
This two-year pilot program known as the Canada-Peru Trade and Branding Initiative will launch four ambassador brands from Peruvian artisan communities in the North American market. The concept of consumer brands as ambassadors is central to the initiative’s micro-trade strategy, where small trade leads to bigger trade. The program’s theme of consumer diplomacy is a sign we are entering a new territory, one called the cultural economy.
Here is a closer look at the four brands:
The high altitude of Altiplano creates a mysterious air, an otherworldly light and a sacred atmosphere that nourishes this 10,000-year-old Alpaca way of life. Puno knitters are valued as some of the best in the world and immense respect is paid to the women weavers in these communities. Products coming from the Altiplano contain spirit from a world in perfect balance, protected by its altitude it survives and is inspired by its closeness to the sky.
Pucallpa, a city on the Ucayali River, is home to the legendary society of the Shipibo people. Known as healing designs, the Shipibo women sing prayers while they work. Inspired by the spirits of the rainforest, Shipibo artisans translate sung prayers into visual patterns on cloth. The song’s harmonic vibrations, message and spiritual energy live in the textile. These are products that tell a story as old as humanity and more relevant than ever.
Toquilla is the name of a rare palm cultivated for its fine fibres. It is used by the master weavers of Catacoas in northern Peru, whose skills have been passed down through generations. This community of women weavers, deeply spiritual with exquisite talent, has been honoured by the Smithsonian and UNESCO for perfecting and preserving natural fibre weaving techniques that elevate this to a fine art.
Spinning yarn and weaving cloth was a spiritual act in Inca society and Peruvian weaving is unsurpassed anywhere to this day. The finest weavers were brought to Cusco to weave for the royal court of the Inca Queen named Coya. These women were then settled in weaving communities in the Sacred Valley where they worked with wool from llamas, alpaca and vicuna to weave the finest cloth in the world.