The Urban Poncho

My job has changed quite a bit in the last few days...While I´m still playing around with numbers in spreadsheets on occasion, the majority of my day is spent realizing my true potential. Basically I´m the Peterman of Peru. (Seinfeld reference) Keep an eye out for me in the latest Vogue, Vanity Fair or Cosmo...I´m pretty sure I´m going to be a pretty big deal in my new career as a designer. I´m working with a group of woman knitters to design modern shawls, gloves, hats, scarves - and anything that can be made out of Alpaca. My first piece is called the urban poncho. The whole idea behind this is to create designs that have a bit of Peruvian style, but that will sell abroard. A few days ago I found myself under a tin shelter in the pouring rain explaining to a group of 8 woman why someone may actually want to buy a skirt that only covers their ass. It took awhile, but I think they see the point now - I, however, can not remember said point. Regardless the skirts will be short and alpaca, which I can only hope is the perfect combination of Peruvian and slutty that I was going for.

While I spend most of my days in the office I also venture out into the markets to look for internesting buttons, fabrics, lace etc. This may seem a lot more ´libral arts´ than my usual work, but today during my latest market adventure my finance skills came in very handy. Here´s how the scene went down:
Me: Excuse me, can you tell me how much for these buttons?
Lady: 5 for $.50
Me: Hmm, would you give a discount if I bought a large quantity?
Lady: 12?
Me: sure
Lady 12 for $1.50
...this is where she lost me. So I asked again to reconfirm, and she did in fact mean what she said.---I opted for 5 buttons and told her I´d be back for more tomorrow. So my years of finance have come in handy bargaining in third world countries. Also studying geometry for the GRE has come in handy as I´m sketching designs with measurements and needing to recall the area of a triangle. It´s all coming full circle.

In all seriousness this is a very cool project which brings together artesan woman to help organize production and keep costs low. The company is going to be a spin off of FINCAPeru called FINCAPeru exports...which we hope to get finalized in the next few months. Everything is still very new and there are just me and 2 other volunteers running the show and figuring out the whole export business. It´s always different and getting to work so closely with the local woman is a real treat. If anyone knows of local stores in the US that might be interested in carrying Alpaca products, or custom orders for individuals - let me know and i´ll send off some more information about the project Perhaps things could be ready in time for christmas or perhaps not. Deadlines aren´t really our strong point yet. By next week I should have some pictures that I can send off if anyone is interested!

Ok, well there´s a pair of fingerless gloves that are dying to be sketched out, so off I go.

comments: amandajudge@yahoo.com