1976 founder biddy and annie hurlbut headquarters tonganoxie kansas number of locations 5 website www.peruvianconnection.com peruvian connection ltd. is a united states based retailer of high end women s clothing and accessories . originally started as a mail order catalog the company also sells online and through six retail stores . contents 1 history 2 merchandise 3 references 4 external links history edit peruvian connection was founded in 1976 by the mother and daughter team of biddy and annie hurlbut . the impetus for the company grew out of trips annie hurlbut took to peru . it was there that she bought a fitted sweater with an alpaca fur lined collar for her mother s 50th birthday . biddy later showed the sweater to a local buyer who wanted 45 more . 1 the business grew slowly but steadily until a style writer from the new york times did an interview with annie for what would turn out to be a quarter page article in the paper s style section . within three months peruvian connection had 5 000 requests for catalogs . with continued growth in the late 1980s hurlbut and her mother opened outlet stores to sell excess inventory . peruvian connection now has retail stores in washington d.c. ; santa fe new mexico ; kansas city missouri ; boston massachusetts ; chicago illinois and london england . a united kingdom fulfillment center was opened in 1996 to serve customers in the united kingdom and europe . today the company has about 200 employees in the united states south america and the u.k. peruvian connection catalogs are printed in english with prices in dollars or pounds sterling and in german with pricing in euros . european orders are fulfilled through the united kingdom branch with call center operators speaking english or german . peruvian connection is among working woman magazine s working women 500 a list of the largest women run businesses 2 and is ranked among internet retailer s top 500 online retailers . 3 merchandise edit peruvian connection focuses on women s apparel made from the luxury fibers of alpaca and pima cotton . most items are original designs produced by peruvian connection staff designers and handcrafted by artisans in peru . we continue to work with the same cottage industries hurlbut said . many of those have invested in their businesses ; a lot are women owned . we have relationships with our supplier base that go back 25 years and we buy season after season from them . the line includes alpaca and peruvian pima cotton sweaters for women as well as dresses jackets coats skirts blankets shirts and a selection of accessories jewelry and home d cor items . references edit gaynair gillian mail order sweater biz finds cozy home in d.c. washington business journal 2007 10 12 retrieved on 2008 01 07 . local owners make national list of largest women run businesses kansas city business journal 2001 06 05 retrieved on 2008 01 07 . internet retailer s top 500 guide 2007 edition internet retailer summer 2007 retrieved on 2008 01 07 . external links edit official peruvian connection websites blog http blog.peruvianconnection.com us http www.peruvianconnection.com uk http www.peruvianconnection.co.uk germany http www.peruvianconnection.de retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title peruvian connection & oldid 731564160 categories clothing retailers1976 establishments in the united statescompanies established in 1976companies based in kansasleavenworth county kansas navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 26 july 2016 at 04 34 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view