The short answer: BANJAARA's knitwear is made by two communities of women knitters. One is the Mahila Umang Cooperative, better known as the Hill Women, a member-owned cooperative in the Himalayan region of Northern India. The other is a community of women knitters who work with Peruvian Traditions in the Conchucos region of the Ancash highlands in Peru. Here's who they are and how the work actually happens.
Most clothing labels tell you where something was made. Very few tell you who made it. That's an odd gap when you think about it, because a jumper is one of the slowest things in your wardrobe to produce. Every row is worked by someone, and a single piece takes a lot of hours.
So here's the answer for ours: two communities, a very long way apart, doing similar work for similar reasons.
Why We Think You Should Know Who Knits Your Jumper
When you buy something handmade, the person who made it is the most important part of the story, and also the part that's easiest to leave out. We'd rather put them first. Our founder puts it simply on every product page: as a female business owner, supporting talented craftswomen is what really motivates her to grow BANJAARA.
The wages from these partnerships also reach further than the women themselves, creating opportunities to invest in their children's education, health and wellbeing. If you want to know where BANJAARA started, our Our Story page is the place to go.
The Hill Women: Mahila Umang Cooperative, Northern India
Mahila is the Hindi word for women, and the Mahila Umang Cooperative is known to most people simply as the Hill Women. It sits in the Himalayan region of Northern India and is made up of 50 self-help groups, which together provide a livelihood for around 700 women.
A self-help group in India is typically a small group of women who come together to save, support one another and work as a unit. Spread 700 women across 50 of them and you get roughly 14 per group, so think small, local circles rather than one big workplace.
Owned by the women who knit
The cooperative is entirely owned by its members. In practice, that means the women receive full payment for their work, with no deductions taken by middlemen or outside agencies. The money flows directly to the person who made the piece.
It's also a Fair Trade cooperative, and this structure is what that phrase is supposed to look like on the ground: ownership and income sitting with the makers rather than somewhere further up the chain.
A livelihood and a craft worth keeping
For these craftswomen, hand knitting is a way to support their families and a way to keep a cultural tradition going. Many live in mountainous communities, where home based work lets them balance family responsibilities while earning a fair and reliable income.
The partnership also opens a door that's hard to open from a village: traditional skills get steady recognition, and rural artisans get access to a modern market they'd otherwise struggle to reach.
The Knitters of Conchucos: Peruvian Traditions, Peru
On the other side of the world, in the Conchucos region of the Ancash highlands in Peru, Peruvian Traditions works with a community of women knitters. The Andes are a long way from the Himalayas, but the way the work comes together will sound familiar.
How the work is organised
The work is organised collectively. A local coordinator oversees the process, handing out yarn and materials to the knitters and organising the workflow. Many of the women knit from home, fitting the work around their daily routines and the care of their families and households.
That structure matters because it lets the knitting sit alongside everything else in a day, instead of asking women to rearrange their lives around a workshop timetable.
Alpaca, and why it suits knitwear
The community works mainly with natural fibres, alpaca above all. Alpacas are raised in the Andes, and the fibre is known for being soft and warm, which is exactly what you want from a jumper. You'll find alpaca pieces alongside our cotton ones in the knitwear collection.
For many families in the region, this knitting is an important source of income, allowing women to contribute economically to their households while carrying on their cultural heritage.
Two Communities, One Shared Approach
Different continents, different climates, different yarn. But a few things repeat across both partnerships, and they're the reasons we work with them.
Knitting is a livelihood. In both places it's an important source of income for families.
The work fits around family life. Many of the women knit from home, which lets them earn while caring for their households.
The craft is a heritage. Both partnerships help keep traditional knitting skills in use and valued.
The work is organised collectively. In India that's a member-owned cooperative of self-help groups. In Peru, it's a collective with a local coordinator who distributes yarn and organises the workflow.
Where they differ is in the detail. The Hill Women own their cooperative outright, while the knitters in Peru work through a coordinated collective. Both are ways of keeping the work in the hands of the community rather than handing it to a distant factory.
What Does a Knitting Cooperative Do Differently?
A cooperative is owned and run jointly by the people who do the work, who share in the benefits. That one difference changes a lot about how a piece of knitwear is made.
Who gets paid. With a member-owned cooperative like the Hill Women, income flows to the makers without middlemen taking a share.
Who has a say. In a cooperative the members share ownership, so the people doing the work have a voice in how it runs.
How steady the work is. Stable, collective work gives families something to plan around, which a one-off order never does.
A cooperative isn't a guarantee of anything on its own, which is why we'd rather describe how the work actually happens than reach for a big claim.
How This Shows Up in the Jumper You Wear
Knowing who knits your jumper changes how you look at it. A few things follow from the way these partnerships work.
Nothing is rushed. We release small, seasonless collections when they're ready, without production deadlines. The women knitting our pieces aren't working to a fashion calendar, so new colourways arrive when they're ready, not on a schedule.
Small variations are part of the piece. Because knitwear is made by people, tension and texture shift slightly from one piece to the next. Read that as a signature, not a flaw.
Natural fibres, chosen to last. Our knitwear range includes cotton and alpaca. The Fisherwoman's Jumper, for example, is 100% cotton and naturally resistant to pilling.
Handmade knitwear costs more than the machine-made kind for a simple reason: the hours involved. A hand-knitted piece is slow to make, and the people making it should be paid for every one of those hours.
It's the same thinking behind our block printing: skilled hands, small batches, and nothing hurried. If you're curious about the bigger picture, we write about it in the journal, and you can read what drives it all on our Mission page.
Five Questions to Ask Any Knitwear Brand
You don't need an audit to get a feel for where knitwear comes from. Five questions will tell you most of it.
Who made it, and can the brand tell you? A name, a place or a community is a good sign. "Responsibly made" with no detail behind it is not.
How does the maker get paid? Directly, or through a chain of agents who each take a cut?
How is the work organised? A cooperative, a collective and a factory floor all work differently, and a brand that knows the answer is usually proud of it.
Who sets the pace? Production deadlines and fast turnarounds are rarely kind to the people doing the work.
What is it made from? Natural fibres like cotton and alpaca tend to last longer and age better than synthetic yarns.
You can read about the people we work with on our Our Suppliers page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who makes BANJAARA knitwear?
Two communities of women knitters: the Mahila Umang Cooperative (the Hill Women), a member-owned Fair Trade cooperative in the Himalayan region of Northern India, and a community of knitters in the Conchucos region of Peru who work with Peruvian Traditions.
What is the Mahila Umang Cooperative?
Mahila Umang is a Fair Trade cooperative, known as the Hill Women, made up of 50 self-help groups that provide a livelihood for around 700 women. It is entirely owned by its members, so they receive full payment for their work without deductions from middlemen.
What is Peruvian Traditions?
Peruvian Traditions works with a community of women knitters in the Conchucos region of the Ancash highlands in Peru. The work is organised collectively, with a local coordinator distributing yarn and materials, and the knitters work mainly with natural fibres such as alpaca.
What is a self-help group in India?
A self-help group is typically a small group of women who come together to save, support one another and work as a unit. The Mahila Umang Cooperative is made up of 50 of them.
Do the knitters work from home?
Many do. In Peru, many of the women knit from home around their daily routines and the care of their families, and the Hill Women's home based work lets them balance family responsibilities while earning a fair income.
Why does handmade knitwear cost more than machine-made knitwear?
Hand knitting takes many hours, and the price reflects paying the knitter for that time. Machine-made knitwear is faster to produce, which is why it can be sold for less.
Meet the pieces these women make in our knitwear collection.