Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maria Teresa Beam. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maria Teresa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Our name was born with the idea of prioritizing our commitment to the environment. As a sustainable and circular brand, we wanted our values to be reflected in our name, “Circle Textile”, because we respect the life cycle of a circular brand. For our products, we use leftover alpaca cones from long production runs in Lima, Peru.
We always promote proper care of our products for a long lifespan; we have a care section on our website, circletextile.com.
While it’s true that an alpaca garment lasts a lifetime; as alpaca is a strong and durable fiber; when the product reaches the end of its life cycle, it will degrade when exposed to the environment and return to nature in 5 to 10 years after disposed. In other words, the garment’s life cycle will close like a circle, as the wool comes from alpacas, which are part of nature.

Maria Teresa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Sure! I am Maria Teresa Beam, I am 27 years old, I was born and raised in Lima, Peru and my grandmother introduced me to crochet and knitting when I was about 9 years old, which sparked my interest in weaving and textile construction. The following summer break of elementary school, my mother noticed that interest and enrolled me in a Patchwork workshop where I learned more textile techniques, which I really enjoyed. Then I entered a design course at the Chio Lecca institute during the summer break before starting high school and all this led me to decide to study textile engineering in 2015 at the National University of San Marcos in my hometown, Lima, Peru. I am currently dedicated to making Circle Textile a sustainable brand using natural fibers, the main one being alpaca fur a hypoallergenic fiber, this is because it lacks lanolin, a waxy substance found in sheep’s wool that can cause allergies in some people, making alpaca fiber a safe option for sensitive skin. We are a not only sustainable, we are also a slow fashion brand where we make authentic artisanal alpaca knitwear, fluffy alpaca stuffed animals full of tradition, beautiful alpaca leather purses and sustainable solutions for boutiques.
Our passion is to be a sustainable brand promoting and empowering the artisanal work with alpaca fur, an artisanal work that has prevailed for generations.
Handmade in Peru with love.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

In 2020, after having worked in several textile factories in my hometown of Lima for 4 years, the factories began to close their doors due to the pandemic. This greatly affected my country, my friends and my family but at the same time the desire arose in me to undertake what I was truly passionate about, which was alpaca fiber and that is when I started my own brand Circle Textile. Shortly after starting my business, I also started a new corporate job at a construction company and I kept working on both for a little over a year until 2022 when my side hustle turned into my main job. I started doing vendor events and also joined several multi-brand stores and that’s how my business grew little by little.
A moment that I consider key was when I was at a vendor event and someone recommended me to join a weekly event fair and at this craft fair my business became very well known thanks to the high traffic that fair had and the word-of-mouth recommendations that my clients made about my products.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I think it would be at the fairs we participate in, since we can learn about what our target customer looks like and what they think about our products; they can feel our soft alpaca fiber while at the same time we explain the origin of our products, the care that alpaca fiber entails, the ethics of our brand and why alpaca fiber is the best option. Over time, people begin to discover my business in different ways, whether through our website, the stores we sell in and word of mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://circletextile.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circletextile
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/circletextile
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@circletextile

Image Credits

None. Are my own pictures.