Verdonna

Wonderfully soft unique alpaca hats from Puno on Lake Titicaca - Verdonna is a female empowerment brand and combines craftsmanship with sustainability and fairness. The wool comes from small farmers who Lorena Gerstner from Verdonna knows personally.

Verdonna relies on solidarity. The sales opportunities for the valuable knitwear in Peru are limited. Verdonna purchases the unique pieces directly and provides the craftswomen with a reliable source of income. In order to create fair purchasing conditions, the partners in Peru calculate the prices themselves. The income from their craftsmanship allows the women to take their lives into their own hands.

Only 100% (baby) alpaca wool is used. The valuable yarn is incredibly soft and supple. In addition, the wool is very light, breathable and hypoallergenic. The great thing about this wool is that there is hardly any pilling effect and the garments are therefore very durable.

What's also special about the eco-balance of alpaca wool is that the pastureland is not trampled on during husbandry. Due to pads in their hooves, the alpacas do not harm the fragile soils of the Peruvian plateau. They only feed on the upper part of the flora there, without removing the roots of the plants.

Alpacas have played a central role in Andean culture for humans for thousands of years. Living with the animals is part of the traditional identity of the small farmers who earn their livelihood from the wool of the animals. It is an original, modest life in harmony with nature. The animals are treated with the utmost respect and have the status of family members. All year round the animals live freely in small herds in the area and are only brought together once a year for shearing. Alpacas no longer shed their fur naturally, but rely on being shorn after the winter. Shearing is necessary, otherwise the animals will get too hot in summer. Some of the wool obtained is used directly for the company's own needs, while the other part is sent to independent cooperatives for further processing, which the women workers have joined together to form.