Consumer
Loro Piana Told Peru Officials in April It Doesn’t Verify Vicuña Worker Pay
- Company sells $9,000 sweaters made from Peruvian vicuña fiber
- Loro Piana now doing more supplier audits to ensure compliance
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A Loro Piana executive acknowledged to government officials that the luxury apparel brand doesn’t know whether some indigenous Peruvians are compensated for providing the company with the fiber used to make $9,000 sweaters.
The Italian company came under fire in March following a Bloomberg Businessweek report that showed that indigenous Peruvians supplying Loro Piana sometimes didn’t get paid for their work chasing and corralling vicuñas, a wild relative of the alpaca that produces the finest, most expensive wool in the world. Critics have called it “exploitation,” while Loro Piana says it pays local communities who then determine how they distribute payments.