About – The White Suri

Never Meant To Be…

The cria (baby alpaca) in the foreground of this photograph was born on the 20th April 2010. He was a whopping two months premature and in big trouble. You could say that he was never meant to be. But with the expertise of our vets and a lot of effort, he survived and thrived.

Likewise, The White Suri was never meant to be.

It was never a plan to get into the world of apparel and fashion.

But just over a year ago, it became horribly clear that I had to do so. A lifetime of sheep’s wool going off to the Wool Board for a handful of pennies and nearly 22 years of just selling raw alpaca fibre is the easy way and probably the best way when you have other things on your plate. But it doesn’t necessarily result in the optimal utilisation of, let alone return from, these quality raw materials.

Summer 2023 I had a brilliant idea: I would give all my alpaca fibre away to a fashion college and feel really good about it. Near enough 300kg. Let the next generation of designers ‘play with it’ and learn about it so that they could maximise its value down the line. I even offered to fund some of the processing. Well, that came to naught. It might have come to something if I’d pushed it. But why should I? Sometimes people who need to be nagged and chased are just not the right fit. Life’s too short for that kind of hassle.

Moving on…

By the autumn of 2023, I’d had a better idea and have been working on it ever since. Long story short, I am doing creative! It can happen. Collaborating with great people in concept, milling, weaving, etc, we’ve come up with a brilliant plan which will hopefully show off this wonderful fibre, in its natural white, to the maximum.

The first batch of 137kg of my white suri herd’s fibre is already at the mill waiting its turn for processing. All being well and good by this time next year, we’ll have a unique product, wholly grown, designed, processed and woven right here in the UK. Mostly in Somerset, with hops over to Northern Ireland and Cornwall for the mills.

It’s exciting even though it could go horribly wrong. Completely different to anything I ever imagined doing and, if we pull it off, something the entire team will, I know, be immensely proud of. Beyond that, it is, I think, a decent example of knowing when to pivot and not being afraid of learning and doing something alien to you. ‘Go for it’, I say.

22 years in the growing: follow our story from field to exclusive apparel and meet some of the alpacas whose fleece could one day grace your wardrobe @the.white.suri.

Hope to see you there.

Imogen Mann
November 2024