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Alpacas
Magazine
North American Alpaca News
CheekyLiving with Alpaca
By Francis E.B. Rainsford
In 2004, Karen Chien founded
CheekyLiving, a full-service, interior
design firm based in Jersey City, New
Jersey with the aim of transforming
homes into sleek, warm and comfortable
living spaces. Chien’s artistry is to create
a vision for her clients and then carry it
through to an environment for them
and their families in which to live.
Whilst sourcing natural fibres for her
home textiles, she discovered alpaca and
decided to take her business in a new,
textile fashion-driven, direction.
As she herself puts it, “I enjoy what
I do and am proud to take my firm in
a unique direction in interior design.
My new mission is to bridge the gap
between local craftspeople in economi-
cally disadvantaged areas and bring their
products to market around the world.
I’m currently producing a line of acces-
sories made from baby alpaca and blends
of up to 20% with silk.”
Her philosophy of managing her busi-
ness along socially responsible principles
ensures that 5% of all sales goes to the
Quechua Benefit to help improve the
lives of those who tend alpacas and
vicuñas in Peru’s highlands. Additionally,
she is organising a donation of warm
winter coats for the communities in
Peru’s Puno Region who are involved
in her handknitting production chain.
Her first commercial sales developing
alpaca products were to the farmshops
run by alpaca breeders within the U.S.
Since then, she has expanded into more
urban retail outlets where her collec-
tions of throws, scarves, hats, and
gloves in baby alpaca and blends with
silk have been well-received for the past
three seasons.
She explained, “CheekyLiving’s past
experience combined with its new
endeavours enables me to bring remote
parts of the world into the beauty of
my clients’ homes. In alpaca’s case I can
envisage each upcoming collection tak-
ing the concept of luxury to new levels.
It’s a fibre still not very well known in
the U.S. and, as such, provides a great
opportunity to establish its niche in
both the fashion and home interiors
markets. With this in mind, I’m
currently developing a screen-printed
alpaca curtain cloth which will be a
unique product for both the home
and contract furnishing sectors.”
Further information about Cheeky-
Living can be found on its website:
www.cheekyliving.com.Karen Chien with a
baby alpaca/silk throw.
and selecting colours for her
CheekyLiving Collection.
Photos courtesy of Karen Chien