Four communities. Four traditions. Each piece made by named hands, in a specific place.
MamaQuilla is best understood as a cooperative of cooperatives. We are not a brand that sources from communities. We are a living network, where each community keeps its own name, its own voice, and its own integrity.
Each collection comes from a particular place and the women who weave there. The collections are not built around trends or seasons; they are built around relationships. Some pieces we co-create, weaving side by side. Others already existed, made and kept by the communities, and were chosen with care. Both are acts of the same thing: helping this work be seen, worn, and fairly paid.
We have met four communities so far, in the order they appear below.
Chinchero · Sacred Valley, Peru
The first collection, and where MamaQuilla began. Made with the family who introduced Cat-Vi to backstrap weaving: baby alpaca ponchos, beanies from leftover thread, and skirts from antique Andean textiles. Named for a yellow flower of the Andes, used in natural dyeing.
Explore Q'olle →
San Sebastián Río Hondo · Oaxaca, Mexico
Handspun organic cotton, plant-dyed and woven on pedal looms, high in the mountains of Oaxaca. Slow, labor-intensive work, and richly colorful. Named for the plant realm in Zapotec.
Explore Yaga →
Zinacantán · Chiapas, Mexico
Cotton, backstrap-woven and finely embroidered by the women of the cooperative Mujeres Sembrando la Vida. Flowery and full of color. Named for flower in Tsotsil, for the cloth and for the marigolds of Día de los Muertos.
Explore Nichim →
Quetzaltenango (Xela) · Guatemala
Backstrap-woven scarves, bags, pillowcases, and kimonos from Trama Textiles, a cooperative born from the women left widowed by Guatemala's civil war. Named for woman, for the many who stand behind it.
Explore Ixoq →Almost every piece is one of a kind, or made in very small numbers. Because the work is slow and handmade, when a piece is gone, it is gone. Sold pieces remain on the site, marked as Archive, so that each collection still tells its story in full, and so the rarity of the work is clear.
Whichever collection you choose from, your support reaches the women and the communities who made the work, directly. These are not only clothes. Each piece carries the place and the hands it came from, and choosing one helps keep this craft alive, and the women who practice it fairly supported.
MamaQuilla grows slowly. Leave your email to receive word of new pieces, upcoming events, and the stories behind the collections.
We write rarely, and with care.
