Woven from
ancestral memory.
Made for the world.
The story of Romeo Laulate Diaz, a Peruvian artisan carrying forward a tradition that predates written history.
A craft learned at fourteen, in the hands of a father.
Romeo Laulate Diaz was born in San Juan Bautista, in the province of Maynas, deep in the Loreto region of the Peruvian Amazon. It was here, surrounded by the rivers, forests, and living culture of the Amazon basin, that he first learned to work with his hands.
At fourteen years old, his father placed needle and thread in his hands and began teaching him — not just a skill, but a language. The geometric language of the Shipibo-Konibo people, passed from generation to generation not through books, but through practice, patience, and presence.
What started as apprenticeship became vocation, and vocation became a life's work. Today, Romeo collaborates with native artisans to bring these textiles to people across the world who would otherwise never encounter them.
Kené is not decoration.
It is a sacred map.
When Romeo describes the Kené, he does not use the language of craft fairs or cultural tourism. He says simply: "mapa sagrado" — sacred map. That is the most honest description of what these geometric patterns are.
For the Shipibo-Konibo people, Kené is a visual language embedded with cosmological meaning. Each line, each interlocking form, carries knowledge about the relationship between the human world, the natural world, and the spiritual world of the Amazon. The patterns are not invented by the artisan — they are received, remembered, and reproduced with ritual intention.
When you wear a piece from Shipibo Store, you carry a fragment of that map. Not as decoration, but as connection.
From forest to your hands.
Every item goes through the same five-stage process. There are no shortcuts.
Material Selection
Only the finest natural cotton threads and fabrics are chosen. Materials that won't hold pattern or dye are discarded.
Pre-treatment
Fabric is prepared — washed, softened, and readied to receive embroidery and natural dyes properly.
Spiritual Design
The Kené pattern is conceived. Not sketched from imagination, but drawn from ancestral knowledge and ritual intention.
Hand Assembly
The piece is assembled by hand — needle, thread, and patience. Each stitch placed with dedication and care.
Finished Piece
A unique object. There is no second identical piece. What leaves Iquitos will not be replicated anywhere in the world.
Romeo Laulate Diaz
Romeo is not a factory. He is not a brand. He is a craftsman from San Juan Bautista who learned his trade from his father, and who has spent over three decades deepening that knowledge through work with native Shipibo-Konibo artisans.
He chose to open Shipibo Store because he noticed something: visitors would come to Loreto, fall in love with the textiles, and then have no way to continue buying when they returned home. International e-commerce was the answer.
But more than commerce, his purpose is cultural. "I want them to feel they are returning to the time they spent in my land. Like remembering."
That sentence is the most accurate mission statement Shipibo Store will ever have.
Laulate Diaz
"When you wear this, we want you to feel
like you are returning to the time
you spent in our land.
Like remembering."
Romeo Laulate Diaz — Iquitos, Loreto, Perú