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• How We Began:
  A Daughter's Journey

  Started in 1976 by the mother and daughter team of Biddy and Annie Hurlbut, Peruvian Connection was inspired by Annie's anthropology research on women in the Andean marketplaces of Peru. 19-year-old Annie fell in love with the extraordinary hand woven mantas and ponchos she discovered in the markets of Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas.

• How We Began:
  A Daughter's Journey (continued)

  Fascinated by these ethnographic textiles, she began collecting them, learning everything she could about the alpaca fibres from which they were woven, the spinning and dying of the fibres, the warp-faced weaving techniques employed, and the ancient Andean textile tradition of which they were a part.

• The Birthday Present
  that Started It All

  Along the way, Annie encountered some rather simple but extraordinarily soft and luxurious sweaters knit from the same alpaca fibre. One sweater in particular caught her eye, and she promptly bought it for her mother's upcoming 50th birthday.

• The Birthday Present
  that Started It All (cont.)

  Returning home to Kansas for the birthday, Annie brought with her the gift she had purchased, a soft, shapely sweater coat knit of alpaca yarn and trimmed with the glamorous long haired fur of the same animal. Biddy and her friends were fascinated with the sweater, and soon, Annie and Biddy began importing a small range of sweater styles, which Annie designed and produced in Peru and Biddy sold from her home in Kansas. Peruvian Connection was born.

• Humble Beginnings

  Annie and Biddy sold their artisan-made alpaca sweaters to a few high-end specialty stores, like Henri Bendel in New York and and Halls in Kansas City. They also created a small catalogue, with Annie doing everything from photography, styling and writing the copy, and Biddy taking care of the packaging and shipping of orders.

• A Jumpstart by
  The New York Times

  The business grew slowly but steadily until one day in 1979, when Annie was showing the line at a New York boutique show. A style writer from the New York Times stopped by the Peruvian Connection's booth and was intrigued by what she saw. The writer did an interview with Annie for what would turn out to be a quarter page article on the front of the paper's Style section. Within three months, Peruvian Connection had 5,000 requests for a catalogue.

• Growth That's Rooted in Time-Honored Tradition

  Over the years, the business has grown into four internationally renowned collections per year. These exquisite, original art-knit garments are offered in the autumn, winter, spring and summer editions of the Peruvian Connection catalogue, as well as at our online store and in our own exclusive retail stores in the USA and UK.

• Growth That's Rooted in Time-Honored Tradition (cont.)

  Although the catalogue has grown in stature, size and range, the original concept remains the same: to offer artisan made, original designs in native Andean luxury fibres. These days, Peruvian Connection's collections are created by a group of extraordinarily talented designers, but they remain true to Annie's original passion: a celebration of ethnographic textiles from around the world. And they continue to be made by skilled Andean artisans whose time-honoured textile tradition remains an art form.

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