Pietà: a fashion label born in the prisons of Lima

#insideout on the inside

We are a group of young inmates from three jails in Lima, two men’s prisons and one women’s prison.

We began the project a year ago.  It was quite difficult at the beginning due to the conditions in the jails here in Peru, but with hard work and practice and continued effort we have now reached a good standard.  Thanks to our skills  in sewing, knitting, embroidering, printing and leather working, and thanks to the quality of the all-natural Peruvian materials used such as organic pima cotton, ecological andean highland wool and baby alpaca, we have done our best to create a high quality brand.

As we are quite inexperienced in the fashion business, we would like to know your opinion about our work.

The idea was to produce something different, expressing our feelings, and creating a way to escape from the jail and travel all around the world. It allows us to generate an independent income, develop our skills and allows for a faster rehabilitation.  We also know that each day of work decreases our sentence by a full day.

As we don’t have all the materials we make a lot of stuff by hand. We are alone; everything is done here in the jails, without any external help.

That’s how the project called Pietà began, a name with reference to the masterpiece of Michelangelo. A scenario of accepting the divine will, without any self-pity or pain. It’s about sobriety and dignity, like our mind: accepting our destiny and making it through.

The photographs in this blog are all from within our prison and show our new collection. If you want to know more about Pietà,  you can read more about us on our website: www.projectpieta.com

Abrazos desde Lima,  Penal de Lurigancho

Establecimiento Penitenciario Mujeres “Santa Monica”, Chorrillos:
Ana, Karina, Livia, Milagros, Mily, Mirtha, Rosa-Luz, Soraya, Violetta, Zonia

Establecimiento Penitenciario “San Pedro”, Lurigancho:
Carlos, Eusebio, Fernando, Gianfranco, Junior, Lenin, Lucio, Perci, Raul, Santos, Victor

Establecimiento Penitenciario “San Jorge”, Lima:
Hercules, Jonathan, Luis, Samuel