For Sandra Jordan, each new collection in her namesake prima Alpaca brand is a chance to connect to and share her Peruvian heritage. Jordan’s latest series of textiles, the Coastal Desert collection, has particularly personal roots, inspired by a natural desert lagoon imbued with childhood memories, and bearing a historic legend on its creation.
Read on to hear how the full collection, including a new collaboration with Kendall Wilkinson, came together.
RPS: What was your initial inspiration, and where did the idea(s) come from?
Sandra Jordan: The 2024 Sandra Jordan Prima Alpaca Collection, Coastal Desert, takes inspiration from a small natural desert lagoon in coastal Peru surrounded by sand dunes, green palms, and bright colors of bougainvillea. The tiny village just west of Ica is an oasis that I often visited with my father as a child, powered by The Legend of Huacachina:
It is said that this oasis originated from the tears shed by a maiden from the town of Tacara who mourned the death of her beloved, a young Inca warrior. After crying for days and nights, a lagoon was created.
Then one day before nightfall a warrior passed through the lagoon and saw the weeping maiden. Feeling watched, the young woman threw herself into the water to hide. Hours passed before the warrior left and as she tried to leave, she realized that she had transformed into a mermaid. The legend says that every night of the full moon, the young woman leaves the lagoon and continues crying for her beloved. The girl’s name was Huacachina.
RPS: Please describe your overall creative and design process.
SJ: We wanted to add more boucle textiles to our offering. The shades that we chose reminded me of the colors that appear in Peru’s coastal desert. That memory reminded me of La Huacachina, the tiny oasis village surrounding the desert lagoon.
After a visit to La Casa Luis Barragan in Mexico City, I fell in love with his bright colors that reminded me of the flora in the Huacachina village. Thus, we added bright colors, natural tones and textures often seen in a desert.
RPS: Did you have a specific audience or theme in mind?
SJ: Our goal is always to add more depth to our offering of textiles. As the market is embracing brighter colors for the home, the Coastal Desert collection gave me the opportunity to further explore my love of color and texture.
RPS: Please describe the methods, tools, and materials you used to develop and prototype this design.
SJ: The two different breeds of Alpaca, the Huacaya and the Suri, give us the ability to weave some incredible distinct textures. For this collection, we presented two stunning double-sided Suri textiles that are very new in the marketplace.
RPS: Did you utilize a new technique or technology to conceptualize or create this product?
SJ: No, our business is grounded in old world techniques of weaving, and we let the natural alpaca fibers tell their story authentically. What is new is that for the first time, we worked with one of our most beloved clients, Kendall Wilkinson to develop a new fabric called Desert Rose – an all-new textural plaid woven in a natural sky-blue background is reminiscent of a desert sunset during the super bloom.
RPS: Please describe any challenges that affected the design and perhaps steered you to an entirely new final design.
SJ: The ease with which this collection came together was very satisfying and flowed effortlessly. The beauty of our business is that it is well coordinated and our relationships with the weavers could not be stronger. We have developed a shorthand over the years and are able to predict each other’s feedback and that helps the process flow beautifully.
RPS: Describe your overall brand DNA and Ethos
SJ: Inspired by nature, tended by hand and woven in the Andes. We take advantage of the best natural fiber on earth to sustainably create the most luxurious textiles for the home.
Coastal Desert is now available in all our representative showrooms nationwide. Visit the Sandra Jordan website to find a showroom near you.
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