Abdelkader Ouazzani, the last of Morocco’s brocade master weavers, has been repeating the same gestures for 63 years in his dilapidated workshop in the heart of the old city of Fes.
“This profession is vanishing... There were many craftsmen in Fes, but they all died and only memories remain,” said the 79-year-old weaver, the last witness of a bygone era.
His skillful hands intricately create shimmering silk fabrics, enhanced with gold or silver thread, for bridal jewelry, designer creations or high-end furnishings.
Photo: AFP
His entire body engages in the delicate job, using a complex drawloom mechanism made up of a large wooden frame topped with beams, rafters, blades, pulleys and counterweights.
His feet rest on the wooden pedals, his shoulders are bent forward, his arms move apart with each launch of the wooden shuttle.
“It’s all a question of calculation, each thread takes its path: It’s like mathematics,” the old man said.
He was secretive about the “rules of the art,” which he learned long ago in his youth, when “there were no industrial machines” to do the job, he said.
His work is both physical and meticulous: It takes an entire day to weave 1m of brocade.
“Not everybody is allowed to see that, it’s very special, he is the last man working like that,” tour guide Mohamed Akhda said, leading a group of Thai tourists.
They were visiting on the recommendation of the wife of the head of a major Moroccan bank, who is a client of the workshop.
An article in the historical journal Hesperis, published in 1950 by the Institute of Higher Moroccan Studies, described the weaving of brocades from Fes as a tradition that “disappeared everywhere else in North Africa.”
The ancestral know-how reportedly had its roots in the era of the Marinid sultans of the 13th century.
“In the 1950s, there were still four or five workshops left,” Akhda said. “You are now in the last one left in the country.”
Ouazzani said that he cannot find a young apprentice to take over his workshop.
“People no longer want to learn this profession,” he said. “No one cares.”
“The future of this refined craft is now threatened,” confirmed a new panel affixed by the Moroccan National Tourist Office outside the workshop, hailing Ouazzani as an “undisputed master of the craft.”
As fashions have changed, the wide, colorful belts that for centuries were the pride of the master weavers of Fes gradually stopped selling.
In the age of globalization, the final blow came with industrial-scale competition.
In Fes, as elsewhere, some souvenir shops now sell low-end products that are machine-woven in China.
Ouazzani works on commission for a clientele he described as “the elite of the elite.”
His rare fabrics cost up to 5,000 Moroccan dirhams (US$517) per meter, depending on the complexity of the patterns.
A digital tablet he uses to show pictures of his most beautiful pieces — and of his grandchildren — is the only modern object in his workshop, which is otherwise crammed with ancient furniture.
On the high walls of the dark room hang framed diplomas and faded pages from fashion magazines.
The master hides his most cherished “treasures” in a small wooden cupboard protected by a dusty tablecloth.
With an expansive gesture, he unfolded his “catalogue,” a 16m-long roll of fabric with motifs that range from the Hispanic-Moorish tradition to Oriental art or European designs.
“This one I made for Colette,” the weaver said, showing a photograph of a caftan with a purple geometric pattern on a black background.
His pride and joy, the exquisite work was displayed in the window of the famous French boutique, which until its closure in 2017 was one of the most popular addresses in chic Paris.
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