We believe in the recovering and preservation of traditional handcraft techniques, as well as in the development of rural communities, while respecting their lifestyle and promoting handmade production.
Our designs consider the creative possibilities of handcraft skills and combines them with contemporary trends, creating a process of constant renewal of the traditional techniques. We reclaim handcraft knowhow, creating unique products that highlight its quality and place it in the exclusive space it belongs to. Our clients value this exquisite art, sharing our admiration for handmade production and our commitment to social development.
To obtain the best quality, we work with expert artisans that master the art of weaving, as well as the finest and most long-lasting Peruvian materials.
We were born in 2002 with the dream of creating a harmonious balance between our love for design, traditional handcraft techniques and high-quality Peruvian materials.
KUSKAYA, a word that means working together in Quechua, is the name we chose for this adventure, creating beautiful objects that are the product of collective effort.
Years later, we are still guided by the same mission but as part of something larger. We are the solidarity brand for Textil El Amazonas S.A. BIC, a certified B company where the wonderful cotton yarns we use are produced. The weavers have progressed together with us, improving their and their family’s life conditions. Our goal is that this project creates long-lasting and important handcraft spaces, that preserve both the art and the identity of rural communities.
Our goal is to be an active nexus between design and tradition in Peru. We are conscious that tradition is kept within its environment, so we are deeply respectful of the artisans’ place of origin. They work in their communities, seeking to preserve what has characterized them for centuries.
The artisans we work with live in a rural setting within the northern state of Cajamarca, situated in the Andes, surrounded by beautiful mountainous landscapes, small farms and cattle. They weave on waist looms, a millennial tool they call callua. Combed and mercerized Pima cotton yarn is the perfect complement for their masterful work, since it is resistant and smooth, allowing a continuous and uniform weave.
KUSKAYA seeks to: preserve traditional handcraft techniques, foment the development of rural communities by respecting their lifestyle, and promote handmade production. Since 2021 this project was selected as one of the social purposes of TREN, as a BIC company.
With the goal of not only being an income source for our weavers, but also a channel for development, education, progress and care for our environment, we have created several programs that aim to improve the artisans’ life conditions and bring benefits to them in diverse aspects.
More on these initiatives:
Alessandra Gerbolini is the creator and designer of KUSKAYA. All our fabrics have original and unique designs, based on the traditional weaving techniques of the waist loom.
The collections are inspired on diverse topics, that go from nature to art, from traditional handcrafts to modern graphic design. The concept behind our design is to have fun without rejecting any ideas, while finding new ways of developing waist loom weaving, challenging the apparently limited technique options of this tool.
