The designer of Warmi, Sylvia Shanchez, is Franco-Colombian. Industrial designer at the beginning, she worked as consultant for prestigious brands such as Christian Lacroix and Kenzo. Her first collectin “ECHANTILLONS” is wholly hand-knit in baby alpaca and merino wool by female weavers from the villages of Tausa and Sutatausa in Colombia. The buttons, in crytal or glass dated from 1910 to 1930, were bargain-hunted in Gand, Paris and Bogota. The collection is limited to 300 articles, each one numbered and signed by the artisan who made it. Warmi aims to promote handcrafted culture protection and development in Colombia. The “ECHANTILLONS” collection won the Who’s Next Fresh prize in January 2008 in Paris.