Berta's Passion for Stitch Design

Making a difference, one stitch at a time … This season we are highlighting our artisans’ design & development process and acknowledging a very special contributor to our team— Berta Espinosa Escobar. Berta’s passion for the art of knit design and scaling it to market travels back many years. She graduated with a degree of Interior Design from the Arts Institute in Peru. As her life progressed, she married and became a mother of two wonderful children. Although being a mother and wife was rewarding, Berta’s passion for design and her entrepreneurial spirit never faded. When she was a young mother, her sister introduced her to hand looming. She was so excited about this new art form that she immediately began knitting sweaters and eagerly collecting all sorts of knitting books relating to stitch design. Within a few months, her sister introduced her to a friend who had a local fashion boutique in Lima. Together, the two created sweaters to sell at the boutique. Orders began to grow and a few years later Berta met Patricia Roose, the founder of an artisan-based social enterprise that now works
with Indigenous. Patricia was so impressed by Berta’s talent and passion for design
that she asked her to be a part of her brilliant knitting team. Berta accepted, and she has now been working alongside Patricia for the past 25 years. Berta has a unique story and is proud to be a part of the greater Indigenous family. She understands the importance of fair trade and knows that whatever she designs or develops with Indigenous, it will help to bring much needed opportunity to the Peruvian people who are involved with all aspects of the process—from the organic cotton and alpaca farmers to the yarn spinners, and of course, to the talented artisan knitters. Berta is one of many of our gifted women entrepreneurs within the Indigenous fair trade supply chain.
Together, our passions bring positive change to everyone involved in the Indigenous fair trade organic supply chain. As Berta says “one stitch at a time, we can make
a difference”.