Oops, forgot to mention the rooms featured below are in Meg Ryan's House in Martha's Vineyard.  Nice taste, Meg!  Where are you these days?

We are very excited about working with our new friend Riikka Hytonen Werannas Warehouse in Stockholm who has an inspiring feel-good website.  She has great style and a wonderful eye for presentation.  Inspired by rustic loft interiors, old and new, ethnic classics and of course anything original knitted from alpaca, Riikka also keeps an entertaining blog Werannas Blog.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring outfit

We love this outfit that Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish the founders of notonthehighstreet.com put together on their blog! Its would be perfect for a fresh spring day out and about. The best bit about it, is that they featured our Alpaca fur tippet in it! Thanks guys!

Lucy Ballet Shirt, Kikis, £35; Alpaca fur tippet, Samantha Holmes, £199; 'Royal Alpaca' round neck sweater, Babi Alpaca, £70; 'Barella' leather birkin bag, Maxwell Scott Leather Goods, £325.99; 'Saidia' embellished multi strap sandals, Love Art Wear Art, £215; Gold coin bracelet, Lily & Joan, £18; Gold star coin earrings, Lindsay Pearson, £396.

Handmade

After Samantha designs the products, she then works with small independent producer groups in rural Peru, where unemployment is high. Having her products made in Peru by skilled hand knitters not only ensures that the products are handmade to a high quality but also helps sustain the livelihoods of these small communities.

The groups are mainly family businesses who hand knit at home. Every year Samantha visits the groups to check up on how they are doing and ensure that they are fairly remunerated for their exquisite craftmanship.

Here are some photos Samantha took of the lovely ladies knitting in the sun :)

Hats, scarves, dresses, blankets, pillows...

To give you a feel for what we do, here is a small selection of some of the lovely things that we sell. Samantha designs all of the products herself and then they are handmade in Peru to her exact specifications. The colour, texture, material, size, everything is carefully designed by Samantha to be comfortable yet elegant. 

This is our cobweb knit wrap which is currently on sale! 

Handknit french collar cardigan, 100% Baby Alpaca. It fits babies ages 6-18 months. Lots of people buy these as christening gifts. 

Our Frilly knitted shrug which comes in 7 different colours and 2 sizes. 

Every year Samantha designs a new range so she's always interested to find out which products people like the best or if there is something new they would like. Please let us know if you want one of our products in a different colour or just that tiny bit longer or shorter. You never know, next year we might have exactly what you're looking for! 

Hello

Hello from us here at Samantha Holmes. We've decided to start writing a blog to give our customers a little insight into us, what we do and what we are inspired by. Samantha Holmes is a luxury ethical womenswear label. You can have a look at our products over at our website.

The founder of the business is obviously the lovely Samantha Holmes herself who lives a beautiful Art Deco home on the North-West coast of Scotland with her husband and two little daughters. Samantha employs two members of staff, Gemma and Pauline to help her run her business.  

Primarily it will be Samantha's glamourous assistant Gemma who will be posting pictures and writing about all the goings on in the office, though Samantha might also pop in occasionally. 

A little bit about Samantha herself... Well, after studying Art History and Languages at Edinburgh University, Samantha went on to work for a variety of companies, a whisky company and an International trading company which imported cashmere to make pashminas to name a few. 

It was while she was working for the trading company on a product sourcing trip to Nepal that she noticed a gap in the market for ethically sourced Alpaca products and she thought "I could do that!". Fast track to today and she has since built a successful company designing and selling luxury, handmade, ethical, Aplaca womenswear, babywear and homewear, which she exhibits and sells internationally.