WHO WE ARE
MeDeA is an Italian brand created by Emanuela Venturi, who for over 15 years has been styling in Bolivia garments made of the finest alpaca wool (mettere il link). Many are the factors ensuring the accomplishment of garments of excellence as for style and product quality: the supervision of the whole productive chain, from the hand-shearing (cruelty free) to the natural dyeing (mettere link) and the making of the model, along with the enthusiasm of Emanuela Venturi and her team of experts and creative local knitters.
In addition to the great versatility of its women’s and kids’ (0-8-year-old) collections, MeDeA stands out for sustainability and respect for the natural environment. Moreover, MeDeA’s garments are perfect for those who suffer from contact allergies, since no chemicals are used during the whole production process. This is one of the reasons why MeDeA contributes to the personal well-being of its clients, but also cares the Planet’s health.
Eco friendly clothing, which combine quality and the ethical value of sustainable fashion: respect of the environment and of MeDeA’s workers.
MeDeA is an extraordinary adventure started almost by chance more than 20 years ago in a street in the colonial district of La Paz.
Among the goods showcased in a little shop in La Paz downtown, there was a tiny sweater with the typical stick figure of a llama and two shabby pom-poms as a final touch. The colors struck me immediately as unusual – says Emanuela Venturi: – “it’s alpaca wool dyed with herbs”- answered the seller. “With herbs? Which herbs? “I bought it on the spot.
In the following days – says Emanuela Venturi – I went wandering through the “mercado de las brujas” the well-known “Witches’ Market” in La Paz looking for anyone willing to tell me the secrets of natural dye, when at some point a woman worn out by my questions finally uttered the fateful words, a real magic formula: “Buy a big pot, gather the herbs by the banks of Titikaka, bring the wool. See you tomorrow at my place” – this was my initiation to the world of natural dyeing (mettere link).
Soon enough this woman did not want Emanuela in the way anymore and that was when she learnt how to dye by herself. “I was buying the wool at Don Eusebio’s, an alpaca farmer shearing his animals in traditional ways (cruelty free shearing) – says Emanuela – then I started to design a range of colors and models still characterizing the clothes currently produced by Medea”.
Pure wool and natural colors
Research and experimentation well portray the first years when Emanuela was gathering and picking the herbs for the dye, testing them over wool spun by hand with the spindle or by machine. The results were more and more surprising: some amazing garments made of pure alpaca wool(mettere link), exceptional in softness and silkiness, were taking shape. Since the very outset of MeDeA color has been its distinctive feature. This kind of color obtained with natural dyeingLINK is altogether different from the industrial ones that chemistry has accustomed us to. Its peculiarity actually is caught at once by the eye seized within the vibrations and the 3D effect of the harmony stemming from even the most original matches. In such a way every color stands out yet enhancing the other ones.
