Sharing Our Story

Here's a little insight into our small and unconventional team at La Sierra, where every person plays a vital role in how this brand operates.

So La Sierra's founder led with me being the founder and creative director. I guide the vision and designs, work with the product developer, and set the overall direction of the brand, drawing on my love for alpaca textiles, slow living, and meaningful connections.  And there are two other vital people who work behind the scenes, and they've been involved since day one.

So my gorgeous mum, Lynn, who looks after all of the bookkeeping and the general organisation and admin, just keeps everything organised and running smoothly and as smoothly as possible when you're running a business. But La Sierra would not be functional without her care and her unmatched Excel spreadsheet skills.

We also have René, who is in charge of managing our South American operations and logistics, and he worked closely with all of the artisans as well. He's been part of La Sierra since the very beginning. And that is because he is, funnily enough, my ex-partner, with whom we've remained very dear friends and have a strong and respectful working relationship. 

But René is really a big reason this brand came into existence, as I met him in Ecuador in 2014 and moved to the other side of the world to live with him. It was during that time that this brand was born.

He's been involved since day one, when my Spanish ability was absolutely zero. He helped me organise the initial samples, and he's helped on all of these sourcing trips and has really contributed to having successful long-term relationships with the makers. It's so important to work on that side of the world to have local knowledge. So, René being from Ecuador, is just a massive advantage to us. And yeah, at the start of  La Sierra, I couldn't even speak a word of Spanish. And over time, that has changed because none of our makers speaks any English. So everything work-related is in Spanish.

Now I can go over and do sourcing trips and work trips by myself, but I don't have the full language ability to deal with everything that  comes up. So it's a massive, massive advantage having his help.

So yeah, we have a small team, and I have a bit of a unique story, and it just makes us as human as the products we create.