Heritage Craft, Reimagined. Complimentary Global Shipping. Free Trade Certified.
history evolving
Our past, present, and future
With every rug, there's a world beneath your feet.
The beginning
The beginning
As Sam Cochran put it in a story for Architectural Digest, our approach at Beni streamlines Moroccan rug-making realities, bringing stability, community, and economic opportunity to what has historically been a solitary and uncertain pursuit. To a T, this is what our founders, Robert Wright and Tiberio Lavo-Navia intended when they brought Beni into existence back in 2018.
A CRAFT OF CAMARADERIE
Our craftspeople are not invisible hands behind a loom, they are mothers and sons and daughters and fathers who joke over afternoon tea and whistle while they weave.
how we see it
A vision of the future
We believe that the craft of weaving and rug-making at large in Morocco shouldn't be a cog in a machine, but a career for one to cherish. Since Beni's inception, doing the right thing in building and bettering local industry from an ethical and sustainable standpoint has been our north star.
As one of our weavers put it: "treating women with respect, paying decent salaries, and providing good working conditions will change the image of this industry, attract young people and help the tradition survive." This survival of the traditional way of doing things is what propels our process forward, and pushes us to bend the rules of what has always been in order to make room for the way things could be.
Respectful evolutions
With the joyous privilege of operating our studio comes the responsibility to better the future of the craft itself in order to ensure its continued legacy while improving its outdated fault-lines. A STEP Certified Partner since 2022, we're committed to fair trade operations and common sense decency for life and art's sake.
Humanity over machinery
Housing all components of this analog craft under one roof, ensures the highest levels of quality, consistency, and transparency. From the sheep that are sheared to the wool that gets woven, every step of our process values humanity over machinery.
In time with the horizon
The sweetest things in life move slowly like honey traveling down the ribs of a glass jar. A mystical part of our production is when every rug makes its way to the courtyard after bewashed and scrubbed. Under the warming blanket of the Moroccan sun, the designs dry before moving on to our floor of quality inspection and shipping.
Meditative and meticulous
The final stone in the path of production is turned over by a team of scrupulous artisans who, in a zen-like fashion, carefully study, trim, and tidy each rug before it gets wrapped and shipped from Marrakech to you.
Humanity over machinery
Housing all components of this analog craft under one roof, ensures the highest levels of quality, consistency, and transparency. From the sheep that are sheared to the wool that gets woven, every step of our process values humanity over machinery.
In time with the horizon
The sweetest things in life move slowly like honey traveling down the ribs of a glass jar. A mystical part of our production is when every rug makes its way to the courtyard after bewashed and scrubbed. Under the warming blanket of the Moroccan sun, the designs dry before moving on to our floor of quality inspection and shipping.
Meditative and meticulous
The final stone in the path of production is turned over by a team of scrupulous artisans who, in a zen-like fashion, carefully study, trim, and tidy each rug before it gets wrapped and shipped from Marrakech to you.
Heritage Craft, Reinterpreted
Our studio is a place where tradition bends but never breaks, melding analog art-forms with forward-leaning values.
Our weaving techniques
Our methods of rug-making are categorized by their regional roots, as is the tradition in the history of the medium. From the sweeping peaks of the High Atlas Mountains and the shifting ergs of the Sahara desert to the rich heritage of Morocco’s capital city, each medium of Atlas, Zahara, and Rabat offers its own origin story.
Atlas
Rugs born from the Atlas method offer a taller, standard pile height that averages around 1.25 inches but is available as low as 0.8 inches. Shaggy and so very soft, the wool shorn for these rugs first finds its magic in the relationship between the sheep and the shearer, a respectful bond that's been alive for eons. The Atlas technique is one that adds instantaneous spirit into a space. Its higher pile is lush and inviting, as if reaching out to the interior with a warm hello.
Zahara
More restrained than the shag appeal of Atlas, our Zahara rug construction dials in on the details of this ancient craft. Like grains of sand, thousands of tightly woven strands of woolen yarn merge together in impressively squished configurations that offer a tidy and light feel underfoot.
Rabat
Rabat is our revival of the R’bati carpet, a hyper-fine knotted style with roots that date back to Morocco’s palatial interiors of the early 19th century. Constructed from the highest quality fine wool, rugs born from this method consist of 64 knots per square inch versus the 15 knots of a shaggy Atlas design. The intricacy of this added effort allows for more creative liberty within the rug’s design.
Atlas
Rugs born from the Atlas method offer a taller, standard pile height that averages around 1.25 inches but is available as low as 0.8 inches. Shaggy and so very soft, the wool shorn for these rugs first finds its magic in the relationship between the sheep and the shearer, a respectful bond that's been alive for eons. The Atlas technique is one that adds instantaneous spirit into a space. Its higher pile is lush and inviting, as if reaching out to the interior with a warm hello.
Zahara
More restrained than the shag appeal of Atlas, our Zahara rug construction dials in on the details of this ancient craft. Like grains of sand, thousands of tightly woven strands of woolen yarn merge together in impressively squished configurations that offer a tidy and light feel underfoot.
Rabat
Rabat is our revival of the R’bati carpet, a hyper-fine knotted style with roots that date back to Morocco’s palatial interiors of the early 19th century. Constructed from the highest quality fine wool, rugs born from this method consist of 64 knots per square inch versus the 15 knots of a shaggy Atlas design. The intricacy of this added effort allows for more creative liberty within the rug’s design.
the proof is in the process
Fast gets the attention, but slow has all the power
Though there are many steps in the making of every rug, our washing method is where innovation braids into the traditional craft most technically. Once woven, each finished design is washed and scrubbed up to five times before moving to the wooden racks in our courtyard to dry. Years of research and development went into this one, proprietary step in the production process, resulting in relentlessly soft and resilient rugs that will last lifetimes.
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"International champions of Moroccan traditions, Beni is heralding authenticity in a world rife with shaggy fakes."
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Yesterday's Traditions, Tomorrow's Design
We see our collaborative collections as a mirror that reflects the people that design them, weaving a spirit of place and feeling into rugs that share their story.
Colin King
Effortless and evocative, Colin King is a designer known for spaces that feel elegantly at ease. Curious and deeply considered, his practice is interdisciplinary and ever-evolving, ranging from creative direction and product development to installation ideation and literature. Lucky for us, he’s our Artistic Director-at-Large. Explore all of the collection's that Colin has authored over the years here.
Orpheu by Garcé and Dimofski
From the poetic perspective of Fernando Pessoa to the aesthetic vernacular of Portuguese architecture, Orpheu paints a Fauvist vision of imagination and reality through the eyes of Lisbon's Olivier Garcé and Clio Dimofski. Explore all eight acts.
Athena Calderone
No trumpets sound when something beautiful happens, so it can be easy to miss. This is not the case with Athena Calderone, an ineffable designer, author, chef, and the founder and CEO of EyeSwoon, a joy-driven community that celebrates the art of living. Over the years, we've collaborated with her on two collections — Broken Symmetry and Salon. Discover them all here.
Flamingo Estate
Inspired by the transcendent garden and architectural details of their hedonistic HQ high atop the hills of Los Angeles, our partnership with Richard Christiansen took shape in 2023 and remains a feast for the senses to this day. Shop the collection.
Tom Delavan
In 2023 we released Archival, a collection designed by T: The New York Times Style Magazine editor Tom Delavan. Combing through his encyclopedic design knowledge, this timeless series of rugs reinterprets the rich, centuries-old weaving heritage of Turkey through the filter of Morocco. Shop the collection.
Terrain by Frama
The autodidactic photographer Karl Blossfeldt said that nature educates us into beauty and inwardness, and is a source of the most noble pleasure. From this sentiment, Terrain — our first collection with FRAMA — established its roots. Discover it here.
Our Home Office and Studio
Our Home Office and Studio
Located on the atmospheric Route to Amizmiz, our studio is about 30 minutes from central Marrakech. Overlooking the High Atlas Mountains, we’re nestled in a verdant garden of olive and fig trees. Clouds of sweet jasmine waft through the air while roosters harmonize in the distance.
OUR TEAM
Weavers
85
Looms
55
Washers + Menders
12
THE STUDIO
Opened
May 2022
Sqft
8,000
Location
Tameslouht, Morocco
Experience the craft
Visit us at the studio in Morocco and at the loft in New York. We welcome guests all year round.