A woman in the Turkish Rug Trade

Growing up modestly in small town NZ with endless nature and not a textile museum or carpet trader in sight, my early fascination and love of oriental rugs and textiles was fuelled by an inheritance of beautiful antique rugs my grandmother had collected in her years of living in India and her travels to Iran and Afghanistan.

In the late 80's I left the corporate world of Training and Business Development, and travelled to Turkiye with a backpack and a healthy bank account, vague travel plans and the hope to buy a 'heirloom' rug inspired by those of my grandmother.

I was quick to feel disillusioned with the carpet-buying process which seemed full of fanciful stories and questionable integrity by some sellers.The historic traditions of haggling and hustling left me full of çay and lavish compliments, but lacking credible reference points and adrift in rhetoric seemingly designed to limit a buyer’s access to meaningful knowledge or comparisons.The 'tall' story-telling may be part of the romance of buying a rug in a distant land, but trying to discern the truth behind the tale was a challenge.

Settling in Cappadocia in the then relatively little known village of Goreme I used my unspent 'rug' money to restore and run a small cave hotel. In those days it was all dirt roads and donkeys, and a traditional life that seemed little changed in centuries, rather than the tourism mecca it is today.

The impetus to then move into the rug industry and later to open my own shop came from a combination of my missed opportunities to purchase, and the obvious opportunity I was afforded by living locally to educate myself at source, and to immerse myself in every aspect of the rug trade rather than sipping çay on the perimeters.

I knew very little when I started.I didn't come from a long line of ancestral rug dealers familiar with the cultural riches that moved along ancient trade routes, to high-end galleries abroad. Nor did I have an academic arts or textile background strongly rooted in specialisations and technical reference books. But what I did always have was a curiosity and a passion, and a well trained ability to communicate that passion. As simple as it sounds, it may have been my greatest asset and the foundation for what is now a decades long successful rug business. 

Despite an initial steep learning curve selling rugs for a rather 'colorful’ local dealer I opened my first rug shop with a Turkish business partner at a similar time to the collapse of the former USSR and the opening up of Central Asia, which was a wild and colorful time to be involved in the rug trade. The extraordinary wealth of one of the last fully unexplored carpet and textile weaving regions in the world was spilling over Turkey’s borders, with Afghan, Turkmen and Kurdish traders smuggling rugs and kilims, icons and artifacts into Turkiye by all and any means.At that time the wealth of rugs seemed endless, my rug knowledge was accelerating and most of my now long term rug contacts were made. 

What stood out as one of the most distinctive characteristics of the rug industry back then was the historic predominance of men in every sector – both domestically and internationally. It was challenging being one of the few if not the only foreign woman rug dealer in Türkiye to navigate and to be taken seriously in what was, and to some extent still is, a male orientated industry. Many of the traders that I first met struggled with having a woman who looked like a tourist purchasing rugs and doing business with them  particularly outside of Istanbul. Those from the predominately Kurdish south east or traditional, conservative Afghans, would either ignore me, ask for the 'man' boss, or at best direct their sales spiel to my young male teaboy! My being a woman meant at times conducting business at a physical distance with neither eye contact or a business handshake to muddy the cultural gender boundaries.  

I wa soften  discredited for not being Turkish and therefore not coming from a heredity rug background, but despite these and more  challenges with the traders and locals, time, education and enthusiasm, plus a insistence by me to pay on time, has fashioned a trusted, respectful familiarity and many long-standing friendships that I still treasure 37-years on.

I also recognized the very clear need to define my own niche and skill set, so setting up a boutique store which clearly had a customer based approach of integrity and accuracy was an important step. My communication skills were good so it was relatively natural to use my passion to engage with customers in a way that made not only complex rug knowledge accessible to those at a grass roots level and beyond, but to connect the buyer more closely to the what I believe is the creative legacy of the women weavers themselves. 

I set up Rug study tours here in Central Turkey visiting local weaving villages and immersing participants in every aspect of traditional rug marking, and in the mid ‘90’s co created a natural dye weaving project working with young women from the Toros mountains, firstly to move them from weaving 'tourist' kilims to kilims inspired by museum collections and later to explore their own creativity. I perhaps arrogantly believed I had something important to offer them from a western design and color prospective yet their extraordinary natural talent made it in fact an incredibly humbling experience, and one where the weavers far exceeded the parameters we had given them. I loved the learning curve we were all on and those years will always be a cherished time for me.

Probably what I am known for these days is what I wryly call my ‘Carpets 101’ workshops, which I have presented to Prime Ministers and dignitaries, rug study and specialized weaving and textile groups, and many a young student willing to learn. 

While the landscape of the rug industry continues to evolve what surprised me then and still does today, is how often I hear sellers referring only to the rug as a whole, and at virtually no time during a sale acknowledge or connect the rug to the actual women weavers and the environmental influences that have crafted her individual artistic traditions present in every rug she makes.Many of the rugs past and present have come from humble beginnings in villages and nomadictents, yet over time make their way into rug stores and homes, or take pride of place in private collections,exhibitions and textile museums around the world. Yet most rugs are seldom signed and it is still incredibly rare to ever know the name of the actual woman who spent months or sometimes years weaving the beautiful designs and motifs that tell the unique story of her rug.This anonyity denies the recognition of the woman as an artist as great as many painters whose works can sell for millions.Who ever she was and however sad it is to me that she is unknown and unnamed, I believe it’s vital for all of us in the rug trade to recognize and acknowledge the individual and collaborative role of women in every aspect of the rug weaving process.

Learning of female icons of the rug world – Belkis Belpinar, Josephine Powell, Sumru Belger Krody and Susan Scollay to name but a small few, as well as the many women who have signifıcantly contributed and made their mark on the rug industry as a whole and continue to do so, was and is, inspiring. I applaud the younger Turkish, and middle eastern woman now in the trade who offer a unique, almost poetic, insight into rugs that speak clearly to their heritage, as well as the many women business owners both within Turkiye and abroad who are now redefining the world of rugs with their own perspectives, implementations and ideas, 

I do believe however that these changing values that speak clearly of a new generation and gender need a broader platform with greater support within the industry if we are to keep the art of the handmade rug alive.This is especially true at a time when the rug market feels increasingly diluted by not only the loss of traditional weavers, but by the saturation of lower-priced, poor quality largely machine made products designed for a quick profit rather than long term sustainability. 

I came into and continue in this business with my own unique female perspective and I hope with a greater representation of women not only will it inspire change but pave the way for and a greater recognition of women’s contribution and legacy to the rug world as a whole. 

I could not have managed 37 years in the rug business without so much expert help and advise from dealers, traders and men and women at every level of the industry and I gratefully thank them all.