Helen Hamann Designs by Helen Hamann, Alpaca knitted fashion designer, Peru Tours, Helen Hamann's Chocolate Fashion Collection
Helen Hamann, a native of Peru, an internationally know knitwear designer and alpace enthusiast, teacher and author.
Original alpaca knitwear fashions and wearable art by Helen Hamann
Peru tours for alpaca enthusiasts, knitters, fiber artists, and eco and cultural tourists.
Knitting and fashion design classes seminars retreats by Helen Hamann
Andean Inspired Knits by Helen Hamann
Original knitting patterns by Helen Hamann
Needle arts shop partners for your shopping convenience.
Alpaca breeders, alpaca enthusiasts, hobbists, alpaca yarns and spinning
Links of common interest from Helen Hamann

Helen Hamann

 Helen Hamann's Designs.

In 1977, Ms Hamann founded Helen Hamann S.A., a sweater design and manufacturing company, to utilize Peru’s natural resources such as alpaca, pima cotton and the native labor pool.  She set the highest standards for quality in both construction and workmanship.  Her designs skillfully combined the traditional colorful and intricate Incan techniques with modern and trendy looks, achieving her own exclusive and personalized style.  Miss Hamann’s designs were extremely well received in the most fashionable markets in the U.S. and around the world. 

In addition, she created exclusive designs for companies such as Peruvian Connection and Andean Imports.  She also sold her designs in her own fashion boutiques located in exclusive districts in Lima, Peru where her clientele included tourists and members of the diplomatic community.Helen Hamann S.A. was the first textile company in Peru’s history to sell to international markets under its own brand name and compete successfully with such names as Missoni, Adrienne Vittadini and Ralph Lauren.

Ms Hamann was one of the founders of the International Alpaca Association back in 1984.  She held the designer’s chair of the board of directors until she moved to Canada. In 1988 she moved to Vancouver, Canada, and while continuing to run Helen Hamann S.A., she started a trading corporation to design, manufacture and distribute knitwear to the high fashion international markets. Within just three years, she expanded her markets to include Canada, the United States, Japan and Europe. Her designs and products were featured in fashion magazines and TV shows, appearing on the runways of Piti Filatti. Ms Hamann’s designs, then manufactured in Peru, Uruguay and the Far East, were sold through fashionable mail order catalogues, designer stores, and through exclusive and high-end distribution systems such as Mitsubishi Trading Company, C. Itoh, Nicoh, Shop America, The Hudson Bay Company, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bloomingdale’s, among others.

In 1993, Ms Hamann decided to pursue a new career, which motivated her to move to the United States in search of a new channel to her creative resourcefulness, international experience, and management skills. During the following five years, she held several managerial positions with computer training companies being instrumental to substantially increasing market penetration and profitability. With the technological experience she had achieved during her years in the training industry, she ventured into high-tech, successfully representing several software companies in their quest for new markets and customers.

With the start of the new millennium and her now enhanced creative and computerized skills, Miss Hamann decided to go back to designing.  Her unique talents are complemented with a strong knowledge of the fashion and knitwear industry, as well as a deep understanding of alpaca with all its glorious qualities in addition to its breeding and raising challenges. For the past few years, Miss Hamann has been working in close association with AFCNA (Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America). They, as well as other clients around the globe, consult Ms Hamann regarding new trends for fiber development, color and design, while yarn manufacturers and craft magazines also rely on her exceptional talents for developing and writing knitting patterns.

Today, as decades before, Ms Hamann’s unique style continues to attract great interest and once again her trendy designs are being featured in fashion and industry magazines, as well as being sought-after by manufacturers and retailers around the world. 2006 will mark a new milestone in Ms. Hamann’s growth and creative development. Interweave Press will start marketing a book of patterns, featuring exclusive designs inspired by ancient Peruvian textiles in modern and trendy silhouettes all beautifully hand-knitted in alpaca. The book will also tell a brief story about the origins of alpacas and their development through the ages, as well as that of pre-Colombian Peruvian textiles.

2006 will also represent another milestone in Ms. Hamann’s career, since it will see the light of her new ready-to-wear collection Chocolate. luxuriously hand-knitted high-end garments in the highest qualities of alpaca and alpaca blends available—a most sensual treat to the senses.  Fashionable women will certainly want to indulge themselves in these hand-knitted masterpieces.