Have you been to the fabric market in Salé? I have been asked this question multiple times. Salé is Rabat’s sister city, built on the hills just across the Bouregreg river. While Rabat has palaces and embassies and Agdal, which is a very hip, European part of town, Salé has factories and a thriving textile industry. And my friends are always asking me if I’ve visited the fabric market. My answer has always been no.
That changed today. We’re in the process of having some curtains made (it’s about time!!) and my friend Marie called to see if I wanted to go down to the market with her. “I’m just doing research today,” I told her. We drove across the river and up the hill past The Potteries and on into Salé to the fabric market.
It stretched off in all directions, with one main street and alleyways going off in either direction. Although it was close to 10 a.m. by the time we got there, a lot of places were still closed. “It’s winter,” said Marie, shrugging. People like to sleep in. This makes sense to me, since it’s been below 40 degrees these mornings, houses aren’t heated, and those tile floors are cold!
We walked all over. We pawed through piles and piles of linens—embroidered, cross-stitched, lace-edged, stained, most of them at least. Marie tells me she bought a pretty linen placemat embroidered white-on-white with roses and bleached it. There are, oddly enough, many different cloths with Christmas or Easter themes. I wonder how many of them decorate Muslim homes unaware, like how for a time a popular ring-tone in Mauritania was “Ave Maria.”
We visit shops that sell towels, shops that sell notions and yard upon yard of glittering, decorative gaudy material. We are intrigued by a label “Morgypte,” a mixing of Morocco and Egypt. The seller tells us it’s Egyptian cotton but made here, but the label says “Made in Egypt.” I guess you shouldn’t believe everything you read. The cloth—it’s a thick terrycloth dressing gown (bath robe)—is really nice but the pattern is ugly and the finish work is sloppy, so we leave it for someone who likes orange and pink together first thing in the morning.
Salé is home to many clothing factories, and the thing that intrigues me most are the shops of ready-made clothes with priced labels hanging off them. 25 euros, read one, and I asked the price and was told 60 dirhams, which is about 6 euros. Apparently, many things are made for export but some are sold locally, for much cheaper. I don’t know how it works. The items don’t look like seconds but they may be. I know the wife of the man who owns/operates/? a factory for a British line, and one of the stipulations is that no item with that mark will be sold in Morocco. But I look at very cute clothes with the labels neatly cut out, and I wonder.
Many of the ready-made clothing shops are very expensive though. One is definitely charging what you’d pay in a department store anywhere. We point this out but the woman in charge shrugs. I can’t help but wonder if she’s changed the price in our honour, although the other day I recoiled in horror when quoted 200 dirhams ($25) for a cheaply-made cotton outfit for a 3 month old…the sort you’d pay $2.50 for in Target, or possibly not even that. The woman at that store said to me wistfully, “I suppose you can find things cheaper in the US?” And it’s true. Clothes in the US are cheaper and better quality than those I’ve found overseas in general, although I recognize that in part as knowing where to go, what I’m looking for, etc., as I’ve watched Ghanaians in Oregon complaining about the expense and lack of availability of clothes.
But we were looking for curtains, and overall I was very focused, although sort of drawn to the deep purple one with squares outlined in white feathers. I recognized, though, that having that made into curtains would result in a sort of Victorian brothel look that just wouldn’t go with the rest of the house. There were many gaudy options–after all, Arab style isn’t exactly minimalist. After visiting a dizzying array of shops lined with bolts of fabric, I am leaning towards a sort of coppery organza for the salon, which comprises both our living room and dining room and has pale yellow walls. Marie agrees, and says “Trés chic!” She’s French so she can.
Note that faint blue sheen? I think it’s so pretty. And yes, this is layer upon layer, and I’d have to buy a lot of it.
with the sunlight shining on it…oooh….
Since I don’t sew at all (see previous posts on my fear of crafts and theory as to their origin) it’s hard for me to look at fabric and picture what it might be made into. I have a hard time with potential. I have the same problem with legos, so I realize it might be my own issue here. But with the organza, I could see it! But, if you are a crafty person (and I mean no disrespect by using that term), maybe even a person who has made curtains, tell me—what do you think?
This is the room it would be for:
And what about this one for Ilsa’s room?
Just the gauzy blue stuff, not the black underneath…
16 comments
January 29, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Rachel
I like both options. I think the coppery one would be lovely. And I’m always a fan of blue. But you have to love it because you’re going to be living with it.
January 29, 2010 at 6:51 pm
shannon
I think both are great choices. I agree Tres chic!
January 29, 2010 at 9:52 pm
KathiD
I am a sewing-type crafty person, and I heartily endorse both of those. I think they would be tres TRES chic. Or, in English, tray chick.
January 29, 2010 at 10:28 pm
planetnomad
Kathi, there was a store in Mauritania called “Mode Chic.” American friends called it Mod Chick, and that’s how I always think of it now 🙂
January 30, 2010 at 3:26 am
LG
hmm, copper? not me… i’d get tired of it. but the blue i could see. do you have a tailor picked out already? are curtain rods as expensive there as in Mauri? hey you never did have curtains in Mauri!!!
January 30, 2010 at 9:13 am
Kit
I love the copper – far better than the Victorian brothel look! I love the idea of gauzy curtains blowing in the breeze.
January 30, 2010 at 6:03 pm
gretchen from lifenut
Oooohh. LOVE the coppery fabric with the yellow walls. Now I’m glancing at my windows contemplating how it would look here.
The blue is beautiful, too.
Then again, maybe you shouldn’t listen to me because I like orange and pink together.
January 31, 2010 at 3:59 am
eileen
I love the coppery sheeny one. I used to have a private student in a tony area of Santiago and she had curtains (more like sheers, I suppose) of that color, and it was lovely and warm on her walls as the light shone through.
I like what you’re thinking of for Ilsa, too. I bought off-the rack curtains for my apartment, and have a sheer flowery (but not grandmothery) thing over fuchsia for my room, and I really love it.
Clothes are quite expensive and of poor quality here as well, so it’s not just you. I couldn’t believe the amount of money I spent for horrible baby shower gifts. And then in the states I picked up so much stuff (for the same baby) for a song! it helps that the seasons are opposite here, but you know what I mean, I’m sure.
January 31, 2010 at 11:50 am
Nan
It used to be cheaper to make clothes than to buy them, but nowadays it’s the other way around! HOW do companies like Tar-jay manage to sell their clothes so cheaply?
I’m not an expert on curtains, but I’ll need some for the boys’ room when the days get longer here. “Blackout Curtains”, I’m told I’ll need. I think I like the coppery fabric you’ve got there!
January 31, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Tonggu Momma
I love the coppery fabric… much better than the brothel alternative. Then again, you are listening to the woman who decorated an entire bedroom around the theme “pandas.”
January 31, 2010 at 9:42 pm
mary
I have delightfully fallen into your blog.. wonderful discovery, I will be linking to you.
Thanks for your gorgeous blog! I’ll also be subscribing to your rss feed and twittering you, if available.
February 1, 2010 at 1:57 pm
MaryWitzl
I love the coppery stuff too, but as a girl, I’d have gone for the blue. I love fabric, but like you, I cannot sew. I always feel such a mixture of frustration and wistfulness every time I go to a fabric store.
February 1, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Jennifer
I’m bad at crafty potential as well; but I can tell you that the coppery stuff is exactly what you’d find in my mother-in-law’s house, which is the highest compliment I can pay! Go for it.
February 2, 2010 at 11:38 am
ladyfi
Shimmering curtains, lovely gauzy ones – yes to both!
February 2, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Carrie D
I love the coppery color, wish I could have some in my living room! (just cream in there now, came with the house. . . haven’t found anything in my price range to change to!) I also like the light blue for Ilsa’s room. Just remember that neither fabric will probably block much light, If you’re needing room-darkening curtains for sleeping in! 🙂
February 4, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Beck
That shimmery fabric is so pretty. It would look lovely, I think, pooling down onto the floor. Of course, I know less than nothing about interior design, as my tragic house aptly demonstrates.