Textiles

Pampa

Carl Wilson met Victoria Aguirre, who is from Argentina, while surfing the coast of Chile.  Soon after meeting, the pair started dating, and it wasn’t long before they had planned to move back to Australia, and to launch a business together. Based in the Byron Bay hinterland,  Pampa‘s range of handwoven rugs and soft furnishings are designed by the couple, in consultation with Argentinian communities, and are inspired by Victoria’s upbringing and the couple’s passion for travel.

Our Brisbane-based contributor Jo Hoban recently caught up with the pair!

Written
by
Jo Hoban

Victoria Aguirre of Pampa with some of their new season rugs. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Carl Wilson and Victoria Aguirre of Pampa. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Victoria Aguirre with some of the photos she has taken on trips to South America. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Studio details. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Mood board in the Pampa studio. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Photo prints by Victoria Aguirre of Pampa. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Details of Pampa’s handwoven rugs made in South America. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Details of Pampa’s handwoven rugs made in South America. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Pampa rugs. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Carl Wilson and Victoria Aguirre of Pampa. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

Writer
Jo Hoban
24th of December 2015

Carl Wilson was surfing the coast of Chile when an impressive Argentinian woman, Victoria Aguirre, showed up with camera in hand. She was on assignment for a magazine to photograph Carl’s two surfing buddies. Carl and Victoria ‘clicked’ over their shared interests in travel and photography, and soon after a relationship and business blossomed! In 2012, the couple took a leap of faith and decided that Victoria would move to Australia. They started Pampa together, drawing on Victoria’s South American background to establish a business in Australia.

Pampa is a grassroots business, focused on selling the handwoven artisanal rugs, throws and cushions of Argentinian ethnic communities, for a fair price, along with the couple’s range of fine photography prints. ‘Pampa’ means fertile lowlands between mountains in Quechua (a South American indigenous language). Within these lowlands is the ‘La Pampa’ province, where Victoria spent much of her childhood riding horses bareback at her grandparents’ farm.

Since 2013, Victoria and Carl have invested themselves in developing honest relationships with traditional Argentinian weavers living in remote villages. They started by exploring the different provinces throughout the dry, forested areas, and then higher up in the Andean mountains, where there’s no phone reception. They spoke to whoever they met, and inevitably these conversations led them to skilled weavers.

These days, Carl and Victoria work with a range of different groups, including NGOs, co-ops, and extended families. They regularly spend time with their weavers’ families, document their processes through photography, and have developed a deep understanding of their traditions. In turn, the weavers see hope in the Pampa business model; the increased income from selling their work at a fair price is helping to sustain their traditional communities into the future.

Working from their base in the Byron Bay hinterland, Victoria notes that ‘nature and its people is our number one inspiration. These weavers live everyday connected to nature in a way that most of the world lacks.’

Each Pampa collection of rugs and fine art photography is infused with ideas of place and process. Collections are named after the Argentinian landscape from where the pieces originate, fibres are coloured with locally extracted natural dyes, and patterns and designs are passed down through generations, most being unique to specific communities. Pampa represents the merging of Australian and Argentinian cultures, and hopes to continue to work with local communities and preserve heritage of its makers.

You can purchase Pampa’s beautiful wares and fine photography prints from their online store or from their various stockists, listed here. Victoria also has her first Australian photography exhibition, Highlanders in the Hinterland, showing at The Farm in Byron Bay until 31st January 2016.

Pampa rugs. Photo – Mindi Cooke for The Design Files.

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