All over Moroccan rugs

No contemporary interior, it seems, is complete without at least one Moroccan or Moroccan-design rug.

As noted in COVER 46 Trends: no contemporary interior, it seems, is complete without at least one Moroccan or Moroccan-design rug. Here we take a look at a selection of contemporary rugs from Morocco ahead of the HALI Tour there, 5-14 May 2017.

The COVER 46 Trends pages featured Moroccan inspired rugs from Anadol, Kooches, Rugs & Sons, Inigo Elizalde, Amini, Tufenkian and Floor_Story. Plus a vintage Azilal from Graz based Berber Arts’ Gebhart Blazek—boucherouite rug pioneer and guest lecturer on the HALI Tour, and a new large-scale rug—made in Morocco by Soufiane Zarib, which wowed the crowds at DOMOTEX Hannover in January. Soufiane will host the HALI Tour group in their brand new gallery at the edge of the Marrakech medina this May, which is open by appointment only and houses vintage pieces as well as their latest collections.

Belgian fashion designer Laurence Leenaert (see Design Notes COVER 46), founded her Marrakesh-based brand LRNCE in 2013. The company makes sandals and bags but there is also a real focus on home textiles, which came about when Leenaert discovered a small studio hidden in the medina run by three brothers who make blankets, scarves and ‘everything with wool and cotton’. A rug collection followed.

At PASSAGEN Interior Design Week in Cologne (16-22 January 2017), textiles played a key role, being the focus of the second edition of Design/18/12—a show with 26 exhibitors including three universities at venues in the south of the city. One of the highlights was a series of rugs commissioned in Morocco by artist Claudia Franzen, dramatically exhibited alongside the paintings that the designs were taken from in the Brutalist interior of church Johannes XXIII.

The HALI Tour to Morocco is fully booked, but another is scheduled for 2019. To register your interest contact Rachel Meek at halitours@hali.com.