News

MP member wins sustainable fashion award

02.02.2022

Mountain Partnership member Illa Biodiversidad y Desarrollo SAC is one of the winners of the 2022 Common Objective (CO) Leadership Award in sustainable fashion.

The CO Leadership Awards celebrate ambition for, and commitment to, business practices that transform lives and solve environmental challenges. The awards are open to all businesses operating in the fashion industry - in any capacity, regardless of size or location. Winners gain recognition and a higher search ranking on the CO site - increasing their profile to leading press and buyers.

The 2022 award winners include brands, suppliers and organizations at the forefront of best practice in the fashion industry.

Illa, under the brand “Illariy - Threads4dreams", is commercializing yarn and hand-knitted products made from soft baby alpaca fibre, all carefully crafted by 35 women from Tolconi, Arequipa in the Peruvian Andes. Illariy – Threads4dreams is committed to alpacas’ natural range of colours and working with undyed natural fibre only. They promote a transparent, short value chain whereby every step of the production process – including raising the alpacas, shearing the animals, classifying the fibre by quality and colour, and spinning the yarn – is done by the women, thus every thread is unique, telling their story.

Carlos Enrique Michaud Lopez, CEO of Illa, said, "This award shows us that we are on the right track and that clients not only want to have super soft baby alpaca products, but they look for ethical and fairly produced items. Not only are we honoured as a business to receive this award, but it is also great to raise awareness about the alpaca sector and the unequal distribution of the benefits among the value chain. We hope to use this drive to grow as a business and to inspire other Peruvian alpaca breeders and artisan businesses."

Read more about the CO Leadership Awards 
Learn more about Illariy - Threads4dreams 

Photo: ©Michelle Geringer