Worlds Apart’s history began in 1977 when former Peace Corps Volunteer Howie Rackmil travelled to Lexington KY with a handful of knitted sweaters to meet up with Shannon Waits who he had met in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. Howie’s first job in the Peace Corps had been serving as an economic advisor to an artisan coop where he met and became friends with a master knitter and community leader named Magdelena Revello. Howie bought some hand-knitted sweaters from Magdelena to take back to the US for family and friends, but after arriving in Lexington and out of money, Howie and Shannon went to Cincinnati to sell the hand-made Ecuadorian sweaters. Instead, they ended up taking orders at a boutique in Hyde Park. It was then that both he and Shannon quickly realized the business opportunity they had. The boutique wanted more and they took their first order. A business partnership was formed and the Worlds Apart brand was born.

By 1979, “The high demand and a definite need for space forced us out of Shannon’s basement in Lexington and into a store front…”–becoming the first Worlds Apart retail store. It was over the next decade, that Worlds Apart brand expanded across Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Portugal. The business flourished, but the decade long partnership between Howie and Shannon ended. However, it didn’t stop Howie from continuing and expanding Worlds Apart. He continued his work with artisans in Portugal, developed a design team and began to manufacture Worlds Apart’s own collection of clothing using fine linens, flannels, silks and knits. The manufacturing and wholesale of Worlds Apart products operated until the mid-2000s when Howie’s focus became the retail stores.

Fifty years later, Worlds Apart continues to offer hand-knit sweaters from Ecuador and remains true to its founding principles by honoring traditional craftsmanship, supporting global artisan communities, and connecting its customers to unique eclectic products found locally and abroad.