Berber Ragtime

While on a trip to Marrakech late last year, Fort Street Studio owners Brad Davis and Janis Provisor came across a cache of boucherouite rugs made by Berber women most likely between the 1950s and 1970s. Essentially rag rugs made from scraps of whatever material was on hand (a resourceful reach beyond the expected wool), the pieces are colorful, highly personal relics of Berber village life, and would have been given as gifts or used as part of a dowry. “I was told that women would usually display their dowry rugs proudly if things were going well, or hide them away as a sign that she was not entirely happy in her marriage,” says Provisor. The painterly rugs, which range in size from 1 by 2 feet to 5 by 9 feet, are priced between $1,500 and $12,000 depending on size and design. Several were hung at Fort Street Studio’s Los Angeles showroom during the biannual West Week design gathering, and the bulk will be displayed at their New York showroom beginning April 28. “The weavers show an eccentric sense of composition in these rugs, and went beyond the typical Moroccan motifs,” says Provisor.