Maroc Tribal - a passion for authenticity
finding original old Moroccan Berber carpets
We’re thrilled to update our collection with this new website! Our new site also gives us a chance to share what is at the heart of Maroc Tribal’s philosophy – authenticity and originality.
Maroc Tribal has been finding original old Moroccan Berber carpets for a decade, sourcing personally from tribes in the Atlas mountains and on the wide hot plains of Morocco, Our collection features an array of authentic Berber rugs, carpets and textiles, with a particular focus on western, central and eastern Middle Atlas carpets, white and cream Beni Ourain (or Ouarain) carpets, bold Azilal rugs and boucherouite 'rag' rugs.
Moroccan Berber carpets started to attract wider world attention in the 1920s, when Exhibitions of Moroccan art at the time attracted lovers of art deco. But it was Le Corbusier who really sparked interest: he loved the big lozenges typical of Berber carpets, and he used these carpets in a number of his buildings. In the 1930s Alvar Alto used simple cream and brown Beni Ourain carpets in his buildings in Finland; Frank Lloyd Wright used them in his iconic Fallingwater house in the USA
Alvar Aalto's Villa Mairea, built in the 1930s
Le Courbusier's La Villa La Roche, with a Moroccan Berber carpet
The minimalist and abstract forms seen in rural Berber weavings, and their bold character, sit beautifully in modernist and mid century interiors. Moroccan carpets were woven mainly for personal needs or to sell locally, however, with so much interest from Europe and the USA, copies and imitations increasingly flood the market. New weaves from cooperative are worked and sold as vintage. Slowly but surely fine, natural and very personal carpets and textiles are harder and harder to find : there simply aren't enough authentic vintage pieces left
We spend two to three months each year journeying deep into Morocco, meeting with Berber families, talking to women weavers, and buying the most authentic, the best quality and the most magical vintage carpets we can find, those displaying all the uninfluenced creativity of the best Moroccan tribal carpets
One of our friends helping to carry an old carpet down the side of the mountain in the Middle Atlas
Here at Maroc Tribal we are happy to offer these genuine and gorgeous pieces to clients worldwide