Origin Story

Hi, I’m Imogen Mann here with Mannkind Fernando.

Having owned Huacaya alpacas since 2002, I started breeding white Suri alpacas on my family’s sheep farm in 2004. I chose the Suri largely because of the white fibre’s saleability due to its dyeing versatility. It wasn’t until later that I appreciated that the beautiful natural warm white of the Suri fleece deserved showcasing in its own right too, and the seed for The White Suri was sown.

That occurred in the summer of 2023. While moving sacks of fibre and wool from one store to another, I reflected on my aging and shrinking herd and how I had nothing tangible to show for its existence. Aside from memories, rosettes, photographs and sacks of raw fibre, there was absolutely nothing. As with our wool, which had always gone straight to the Wool Board, I had always sold my alpaca fibre raw, and therefore had no idea what it became after it left the farm.

I felt I was looking into a void. My prize-winning Mannkind herd of white Suri alpacas was heading towards extinction leaving no signposted trace that it ever existed. So, by the time I’d finished moving all the sacks into their new home, I had decided that now was the time to break the cycle and to finally make something with my fibre. Not just anything, mind. It had to be something special that would show off my animals’ beautiful fleeces to the full.

After two years of R & D, we went into testing and then production in February 2025.

I sent 137.32 kg of my hand-graded blanket fibre (that’s the best fibre from the main body of the animals) to a specialist worsted alpaca mill in Northern Ireland. They hand-sorted it again, and the best 64kg went forward to washing and blending with 6.50kg of Falkland Islands Polwarth wool to enhance yarn memory and bounce. The blend was then spun worsted, yielding 57.50kg of gorgeous natural cream white 2/12Nm yarn – 90% white Suri alpaca and 10% Polwarth wool. I believe this is a unique blend in the UK.

Woven with a bespoke herringbone pattern and hand-finished in Scotland and Somerset by artisan weavers using vintage looms, the cloth and scarves created really showcase the incredible lustre of white Suri fibre.

With production completed by mid September 2025, I’m immensely proud to say that we have crafted something really special: a Suri alpaca fibre scarf that is 100% British made from the unique marriage in Northern Ireland of two rare lustrous and soft fibres crafted into a bespoke herringbone pattern by skilled artisan weavers in Scotland and England and capped off with the subtle finely woven labels from a Derbyshire label maker.

Uniquely British, The White Suri is the most gorgeous and luxurious scarf you can imagine. Having focussed on quality over quantity at every turn, this production run yielded fewer than 150 scarves. This will never be repeated. These scarves are heirloom pieces of art.

At some point, I will release scarves for sale. So, if you’re interested, subscribe to receive my occasional updates and be among the first to know when that will be.

White Suri fleeces catch the light and sparkle. It’s a magical sight and adds to the aura of these hardy, confident and proud beasts. I believe that our scarves have embodied that perfectly.

I conceived of The White Suri partly to share and showcase this fibre in its natural glory, but mainly because, after a lifetime, the farming chapter of my life is drawing to a close. A new chapter awaits, yet the through line endures, establishing the true legacy of five decades of a family farm, its defining alpaca years and how they have filtered my view of the world through an alpaca lens.