Sucre

Sucre is where Bolivia was signed into existence, in 1825, in a white house on a white square, and the whole city has stayed white by law since. It is calm, low, colonial and at 2,800 metres mild enough to walk all day. It is also the gateway to the most extraordinary weaving in Bolivia. Our Sucre bag is grey handwoven cloth with a quiet stripe, the moon family, Killa, the one piece we make with the colour turned almost off.

The white city

Sucre keeps the title of capital while La Paz keeps the government, and it wears the title lightly: whitewashed walls, terracotta roofs, churches and courtyards, a World Heritage centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. The Casa de la Libertad on the main square is where the declaration of independence was signed. The light is soft here, the pace slower than anywhere on the altiplano, and the market is small and good.

The weavers of Tarabuco and the Jalq'a

An hour east of Sucre is Tarabuco, whose Sunday market draws weavers from the surrounding villages in their own distinctive dress, and whose textiles, tight, figured, in red and black and ochre, are among the most recognised in the Andes. Further out, the Jalq'a communities weave the strangest cloth in the region: red and black only, covered edge to edge in imaginary animals with no ground and no border, a cloth that reads like a dream. The ASUR museum in Sucre shows both traditions and sells cloth for the weavers directly. If you go to one textile museum in Bolivia, go to this one.

The bag named Sucre

The Sucre is a messenger bag in grey handwoven Andean cloth, a quiet base with a loud weave in it, one of three bags we make and the only piece so far in the moon family. Its siblings are the Arequipa and the Cochabamba; its altiplano neighbour is Potosí, two hours up the road.

Other cities

All twenty on the cities. Cusco · Písac · Urubamba · Maras · Puno · Huaraz · Arequipa · Nazca · Paracas · Callao · Iquitos · Cajamarca · Tacna · La Paz · El Alto · Copacabana · Oruro · Potosí · Cochabamba. See all the pieces named for Andean towns on headwear and bags, and the cloth families on the weaves.