When I travelled Peru exactly one year ago, I was fascinated by the rich culture, the fantastic food, and the incredibly soft and colorful fabrics that I could admire everywhere I turned. On the journey, I learned a lot about llamas, alpacas, and even the softest fur in the world: Vicuña. Enthusiastic about the colorful fabrics, we drove from Cusco to a mountain village over 4000 m, where we learned how to traditionally process wool and dye it with natural colors. For me personally, Peru has been the country with the greatest fabrics ever since.
Peruvian Marisa Fuentes Prado designs sustainable fashion for her label Maqu, which is handcrafted in Berlin and Lima, Peru. She uses various materials of Peruvian Alpaca wool, organic cotton, lyocell, fabric residues, and recycled fabrics. In her shop in Berlin-Friedrichshain, you feel like you’re in a special place because the space is also her creative studio with design sketches on the wall. When you are there, you kind of feel like you’re participating in the creative process. The collections are as diverse as Marisa herself: colorful and minimalist at the same time with classic and daring cuts. From the current collection, I particularly like the Emmi Pants (which would fit well with the Manakaa Sweater) and the Lilo Dress. The pieces are unique and rare: Marisa often creates only a few pieces of a design and sometimes even only a single item. Perfect for individualists.
Who made my clothes? – Maqu focuses on ultra-fair production
Maqu stands not only for sustainable fashion but also for fair working conditions. Marisa knows each of the Alpaca shepherds and seamstresses with whom she works personally. She can even tell a personal story to everyone and shows me photos of them. In Berlin, she sews at the tailor’s office across the street from her shop. Production chains can hardly be any shorter.
Fair production means fair pay for everyone. She therefore participates in local social projects. For example, 5% of an Ariquipa-made sweater from the current collection goes to a local school.
Address:
Maqu
Libauer Str. 4
10245 Berlin-Friedrichshain
Opening hours:
Mon – Sa 11:00-19:00
Tue 11:00 – 17:30
Contact:
Phone: +49 152 04 46 4261
bymaqu.com
Comments are closed.