About Us


About Us

Our story

Inspired by the love for her native country of Peru, Cristina Dioguardi established Beyond Threads in 1992, co-designing with her long time friend Alejandra Bedoya. Traveling to Peru several times each year, Cristina works with small to medium-sized factories and cottage industries to produce exclusive products of the finest alpaca, pima cotton, merino wool, and other natural fibers. Every facet of production is carefully considered, from dyeing the yarn to selecting beautiful buttons. Master artisans are employed at every stage in the manufacturing process, and many garments require hand-finishing. Beyond Threads maintains the highest ethical standards, using only natural sustainable fibers and working only with groups that follow fair trade practices. The resulting quality is a hallmark of Beyond Threads’ garments, original designs combining Peruvian craftsmanship and contemporary styling.

In 2013 Beyond Threads joined efforts with Mery Luz Salva, a self-taught jewelry designer born in Peru. Together they began experimenting with recycled textiles, cardboard, yarn, and thread to create lightweight, wearable pieces of art. The result was a unique and colorful line of textile fiber jewelry.

By manufacturing products in Peru for over two decades, Beyond Threads has created many jobs and grown many women-owned businesses. In that time Beyond Threads has built a following of devoted customers in the U.S.A., Canada, and even Japan.

 

Our philosophy

At Beyond Threads, we believe our business activities should enhance the lives and livelihoods of all persons involved with us, from the people we help to employ in cottage industries and small to medium factories in Peru to our employees who work here in the U.S. At the same time we believe in being good stewards of our natural resources.

We honor the people, the culture, and the traditions of the artisans we work with. Beyond Threads has been trading fairly with suppliers, while using fibers that are natural and sustainable, long before the principles of Fair Trade and “eco-friendly” became widely adopted.

And we will continue on this path…