Making magical zero-waste carpets with the ANOU

Making magical zero-waste carpets with the ANOU

Interview Tamsin Blanchard

Photographs Sam Scales

Ssōne is a fashion and lifestyle brand launched in 2019 by Caroline Smithson. After a long career in fashion working for other fashion houses and labels, Smithson realised that she wanted to focus her own brand on her life-long preoccupation with craft. Meticulous research into the provenance of her materials and every detail of her collections, and a celebration of craftsmanship underpin Ssone’s ethos resulting in a collection that has a beautiful, timeless modern folk quality about it. Smithson describes Ssone as “a desire to create thoughtfully designed garments using rare textiles and traditional techniques that expose the visible hand.”

Photographed at Milli Proust in Sussex

 

Alongside Ssōne, Smithson set up a nonprofit sister organisation, Ssōne Circle that advocates community and craft with a series of events, and exhibitions in her store on Chiltern Street in London.  She is currently showcasing the deliciously bold Mud Belly ceramics made by Phoebe Collings-James.

Smithson also incorporates a system that uses her own waste textiles which are upcycled into her Re-Ssōne collection. As part of this zero-waste initiative, she has commissioned the ANOU, a community of artisans in Morocco, to produce subtly coloured and boldly patterned hand-knotted rugs made with her naturally dyed off-cuts. The series of four rugs – two knot pile pieces inspired by the colour palette of the collection, and two scrap rugs made using off- cuts from its production process are available both to view and to buy at Ssōne’s store at 17 Chiltern Street, London. All profits will be divided between ANOU and Ssōne Circle. This collaboration is the first in an ongoing series, created to provide a platform and support for the work.

 

 

Tamsin Blanchard: Tell us about your collaboration with the Anou, who are they and how did you start working with them?

Caroline Smithson: We were lucky enough to be introduced to the ANOU by a mutual friend. ANOU is a community of artisans working together to reshape Morocco’s artisan economy, empowering craftspeople and allowing for communication between cultures. Based next to the Atlas Mountains, ANOU designs and produces fair-trade rugs and other products including wood carving, and basket weaving amongst other traditional and modern crafts. The ANOU then sells the products on the cooperative’s dedicated online platform – a site designed by and run by Moroccan artisans, allowing them to sell their pieces independently to customers around the world.

According to its founder, Dan Driscoll, “Anou represents a fundamental shift in the fair-trade industry. Instead of asking how organisations or businesses can help, ANOU asks how can we build a resilient community of artisans where outside help and fair-trade organisations are no longer needed.”

 

What’s so special about their work?

There are many local community groups or tribes involved in the ANOU from all over Morocco. The depth of their knowledge and understanding of local materials is staggering.  Different groups work with historic techniques from their areas, they understand the natural availability and scope of the nature that surrounds them. We are just at the beginning of our partnership with them, and we chose to work with Tifawin.

The women of Cooperative Tifawin are from a village outside of City Fatima called Ourika, about 60 km from Marrakech. The area is commonly visited by tourists, which is what encouraged the women to build the cooperative. Before, they were weaving in their homes, but selling at very low prices to middlemen or to the markets of Marrakech. With the cooperative they were able to come together and raise prices to earn a better income. This area is famous for its boucherouite rugs and traditional high mountain rugs that have a variety of colours. For the women, these rugs are like canvases where they can create new and unique designs. The women wanted to create the cooperative because they were so frustrated and stuck with the middlemen who were taking their products for next to nothing and selling them for much more to tourists. With the help of the village Development Association, they have been able to successfully build the cooperative. The women are now able to unite as a community and develop their skills while also earning sustainable income, working in a shared space and in their respective homes.

 

 

The cooperative provides the women with the materials for their weaving, and ten percent of the income from the rugs goes towards the cooperative costs and rent of the communal space. Twelve women have been part of Tifawin since its inception in 2014.

They worked on two styles of rugs for us, the wool knot pile rugs that were botanically dyed to the colours of our collection, and Boucherouite which is made from textiles scraps.  We gave them our production off cuts to work with as part of our Zero Waste initiative.

 

Describe the process of working together

We worked with them on the design, we set them a brief to design the rugs asking them the question “What does beauty mean to you”.  They responded with beautiful sketches based on the nature around them, we worked together refining the design layout and colour ways.

 

 

Why does their work resonate so much with you?

As a long time craft worker and lover it felt like a natural partnership to work with, to support and encourage a female artisan community.  What resonated particularly between us and the ANOU as a whole was that the artisans were being empowered through basic technology to speak out globally. We have some really exciting projects lined up.  Ssōne is committed to researching and practising sustainable and responsible processes. This belief system forms so much of what we are proud to be doing and ANOU have a wealth of artisans that inspire us.

 

ssone.com

theanou.com

 

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