A dish discovered in 1991, a lead pursued in 1996 In 1991, on her first trip to Morocco, Valérie Barkowski saw women working with a large raw earthenware dish, used to roll couscous or knead bread. She bought one, with no other idea than to use it at home. A saucy dish, served the very …
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Dar Kawa’s raw tableware and raw cotton
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YOYO, our new bed linen collection featuring a twisted-thread design
Our YOYO collection celebrates a free line and an array of possible designs. Discover here what makes our new collection of twisted-thread bed linen so distinctive. A design born from a hotel commission YOYO was born from a bed linen commission for a hotel project in Marrakech. “I had designed sets for a hotel in …
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Moroccan tassels: the workshop filmed by Condé Nast Traveler
On October 7, 2026, Condé Nast Traveler dedicated an episode of its “Made In” video series to three ancient Moroccan skills: rug weaving, metalwork, and Moroccan tassels. The final chapter, starting at 8 minutes 39, was filmed with Valérie Barkowski in her Marrakech workshop and her medina boutique. https://youtu.be/0-KePEfsqyY?t=519 ‘Made In’ showcases three Moroccan craft …
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Author jewellery: travel, chance and creation
An author jewel is almost never born in the workshop. With Valérie Barkowski, it is first born elsewhere, in the chance of a journey, a piece sourced at a market. There are drawers I have been opening for twenty years. They contain nothing precious in the sense jewellers mean it. Antique beads bought at a …
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Ozera, the original placemat born from the idea of an island
During lockdown in Brussels, Valérie Barkowski was bored at the table. Placemats, tablecloths: always the same, nothing ever moving. She opened her notebook and drew an island. Ozera was born like that—an original placemat to be composed. An idea born during Covid Three meals a day, at home, without moving, without going out: Covid gave …
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Hand-embroidered home linen in Marrakech: the story of Trass
It is the simplest stitch in all embroidery: the one a child reproduces instinctively, needle in hand, the one used to mend a hem or assemble a garment before the final seam. Trass brings this stitch into our hand-embroidered home linen in Marrakech for the first time. The city’s embroidery has been built around other …
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Moroccan Twisted Thread: An Ancestral Craft Applied to Bed and Table Linen
In 1996, Valérie Barkowski moved to Marrakech. In the alleyways of the medina, she noticed men working outdoors, along the walls. They were everywhere. She did not yet understand what they were doing. She moved closer. They were Moroccan twisted-thread makers – an ancestral trade, discreet, rooted in the quarter for generations. Along the walls, …
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Steam Ship Sudan: A Textile Mission on the Nile
In January 2024, Valérie Barkowski embarked for the first time on the Steam Ship Sudan. A scouting trip, and from the very first hours aboard, this feeling: the Sudan is lived, for real. A different space-time, with a gentleness and grace that have become rare. This is the starting point of an eighteen-month textile design …
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Câllas Milano x Valérie Barkowski: embroidery as a creative gesture
For its Spring 2025 collection, the Italian house Câllas Milano called on the Valérie Barkowski workshop in Marrakech. It is the first time the brand has agreed to let a fashion house use its eponymous tassels. Câllas approached her, and the fashion-and-craft collaboration was built on one simple thing: shared values. Multicoloured tassels, hand-embroidered onto …
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