The Moroccan home design company, known as, Soufiane Zarib, is the company to know about these days. With stores all across the U.S., Europe, and Australia, the firm has designed for incredibly high-profile clients such as Christian Dior and models Iman and Bethann Hardison.
Below are five facts you did not know about this amazing company that is creating works of art, not just carpets.
1- It started as a family business
The business has been family run for generations, landing on its third generation now. Soufiane and Ismail Zarib currently own the establishment. Their grandfather used to sell old djellaba’s, which are unisex, long robes. Soufiane’s father used to sell carpets to Moroccan people and he was a very traditional man.
Eventually, they started to produce carpets by themselves. They started to hire women as carpet weavers which then lead them to buy quality wool in the right colors and having the women design these carpets, the way they envisioned. All the carpets they create are one-of-a-kind. They distinctly want to avoid mass production.
2-They sell a mixture of their own designs and vintage designs
Vintage carpets became fashionable around 15 years ago. The struggle the Zarib family has found when it comes to collecting vintage designs, is that they have to filter through a lot of pieces before finding the quality and design they enjoy. The design is the most important part, then quality is a close second. They try to only purchase the truly special vintage pieces. Earlier in their business days, they would sell 90% vintage carpets and 10% new ones. However, nowadays, customers purchase 95% new carpet, and 5% to 10% vintage carpet.
3-Moroccan Carpets have become trendy
Moroccan carpets have increased in their popularity over the last 10 years by an insane amount. There is even a specific community of people who come to Morocco, specifically French, British and Americans, specifically for carpets. They like to create an Instagram account, take photos of the carpets that catch their eyes, and then purchase the carpets to then sell through their Instagram accounts.
4-They have over 50,000 vintage carpets in stock
The Zarib family have almost 50,000 or 60,000 vintage carpets in stock at this time. The Zarib family are holding this stock due to the carpets increases in value over time. These rugs range drastically in price. Vintage carpets truly depend on the specific carpet in question. However, the new carpets can cost around one thousand dollars for a 10×14 ft carpet.
5-Traditional carpet weaving creates jobs in villages
While the younger generations don’t seem to show an interest in carpet weaving these days, women in the villages will happily take on these jobs. The Zarib family will even travel to areas where these women have 20 plus years of carpet weaving experience and provide these women with jobs so they can make a living in this field. These women are artists and creators. They are given multiple colors and then they design from their own imagination. The Zarib family is specifically determined to give these women a better life than the generations before them had.
