Handmade
The way in which Indigenous garments are produced is at the very heart of who we are as a company. Over a decade ago, Indigenous was founded on the rich culture and knitting traditions of native artisans in South America. Today, our continued support of over 300 artisan co-operatives and knitting groups provides fair trade standards and wages for some of the poorest regions in the world while helping to preserve their traditional knitting skills. For our customers, this means high-quality and unique handmade fashion details in a garments that are good for the people and planet.
The making of an Indigenous garment
Indigenous matches its organic fiber specialty yarns in a very creative manner with the specific skills and available applications of the individual artisan cooperatives. Whether it is a unique stitch, hand yarn twist, crochet, or other special skill, the right talents are matched with the design needs of the garment, assuring the best fashion detail and premium quality from each artisan group.Our garments are typically made using one of three carefully selected methods: hand-knit with needles, hand-held knitting looms and hand-woven looms.
Hand-Knit with Needles
The traditional knitting skills of artisans passed down for thousands of years lays the ground work for the impeccable, detailed needle work in these garments. Each garment is hand-knit entirely by an individual as part of a small knitting group in their community, not in a factory. Fair trade wages in combination with educational training allow the artisan to take the time necessary in creating excellent quality and fit of each individual Indigenous garment. Great care goes into the entire process and the result is consistent, premium hand-knit clothing crafted with traditional skills.
Hand-Held Knitting Loom
The first stage in creating these light weight and sheer garments is creating knit panels on the hand-held, hand-powered lap looms, much like a small knitting machine. The knit panels are then hand-linked together using fully-fashioned details and achieving results on size, fit and finish not obtainable through normal sewing methods. Every seam is hand-linked to perfection. This type of hand-finishing is certainly more time and labor intensive, but results in a garment of higher quality, fashion detail and care.