{"id":13938,"date":"2026-07-23T11:48:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/?p=13938"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:05:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:05:05","slug":"fez-embroidery-the-origin-of-our-noon-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/fez-embroidery-the-origin-of-our-noon-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Fez Embroidery: The Origin of Our Noon Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In 1997, Val\u00e9rie Barkowski extracted a single stitch from Fez embroidery<\/strong>, enlarged it, and irregularly dispersed it across a white cotton pillowcase. This was the first piece of the Noon<\/strong> collection. Twenty-nine years later, it is still handcrafted in the Marrakech workshop, with the same technique, using the same thread. <\/p>

Fez Embroidery: What Makes It Unique<\/h2>

Fez embroidery<\/strong>, or Tarz el Ghorza<\/em>, is one of the most complex embroidered techniques in Moroccan heritage. Its outline stitch is created without a preliminary drawing: the embroiderer counts the warp and weft threads, starts from the center of the piece, and constructs geometric patterns from the inside out. <\/p>

Its absolute uniqueness lies in the fact that the front and back are strictly identical. No attachment points, no loose threads are visible. The patterns – stars, crosses, arabesques – are impeccable on both sides. A level of precision few embroidery techniques achieve. <\/p>

Traditionally monochrome, it unfolds in blue, garnet, green, or plum. However, this work was not found in shops. It lived behind the walls of homes, passed down between mothers and daughters, reserved for wedding trousseaux. Val\u00e9rie Barkowski discovered it in this domestic, non-commercial space, invisible from the street. <\/p>

“Upon my arrival in Marrakech, this embroidery captivated me \u2013 an absolute precision that conveys an impression of simplicity. So perfectly ordered, symmetrical, and impeccable.”<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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From Traditional Technique to Noon: A Deconstruction<\/h2>

Traditional Fez embroidery<\/strong> forms large, structured patterns that cover the entire surface. Val\u00e9rie Barkowski chose to deconstruct it: she extracted a single stitch – a small eight-pointed star forming a square – and isolated it. <\/p>

She enlarged this unique stitch, changed its scale, then irregularly dispersed it across the entire surface of a pillowcase, and then along the edge of a bedsheet. The result: an embroidery that retains the rigor of the Fez stitch while producing a radically different, airy, minimalist, contemporary visual effect. <\/p>

This is the brand’s consistent working method: identify a savoir-faire, understand its internal logic, extract an element, change the scale. Not to copy. To reinterpret. <\/p>

\u201cI extracted the stitch, enlarged it, and scattered it. The impression is similar, but the result is entirely different. Noon embroidery is a personal interpretation of a long-standing tradition.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Summer 1997: The First Pieces, The First Embroiderer<\/h2>

To produce the first pieces, embroiderers capable of maintaining the required level of precision had to be found. Val\u00e9rie Barkowski leveraged the medina’s network. She found an association of women initiated into artisanal embroidery<\/strong> by Moroccan Catholic sisters. <\/p>

The first embroiderer was named Rabea. She lived in Dar Bacha, a stone’s throw from what would become the V.Barkowski boutique. She had difficulty walking, a malformation. They did not speak the same language. But the first sample she delivered was impeccable: the stars were small, perfect, regularly irregular. Both sides identical. Not a single thread out of place. <\/p>

Then Rabea revealed that of the sum paid by the association, only 32% was given to her. The discovery was brutal: an institution presenting itself as protective was siphoning off the wages of its own workers. This was the first lesson in a reality that would take years to fully unfold – that of intermediaries who capture a share of the artisans’ work, sometimes under the guise of charity, sometimes even within the team. Employees of the workshop, better paid than the embroiderers, demanded a commission from them in exchange for orders. This continued for years before being discovered. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From One Embroiderer to Five Hundred<\/h2>

This initial contact opened a network. The embroiderers of the medina work from home, a Moroccan social reality: for women whose family obligations limit travel, working from home represents access to their own income, in a country where the role of women remains, in some circles, confined to the domestic sphere. <\/p>

Once the first women were found, dozens more followed. Each embroiderer works from home, at her own pace. The Marrakech textile workshop<\/strong> receives, inspects, and assembles. During the busiest periods, up to five hundred embroiderers work simultaneously for the brand. <\/p>

Each embroiderer produces at her own pace, in her own style. This imposes a logistical constraint: a client order must be embroidered by a single person to ensure the visual coherence of the piece. Slowness is part of the system. <\/p>

The workshop now operates on a smaller scale, with the same exacting standards and techniques.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Twenty-Nine Years of Collection: What Has Changed, What Remains<\/h2>

The Noon collection<\/strong> has evolved. The pattern has grown over the years, and this change in scale has a direct technical consequence: the double-sided Fez embroidery<\/strong>, characteristic of the original technique, becomes more difficult to apply to larger formats. Current pieces are embroidered on one side only. The design remains identical, the precision intact; it is the scale of the pattern that makes reversible work impractical at these dimensions. <\/p>

The collection now covers hand-embroidered bed linen,<\/strong>duvet covers, sheets, pillowcases, and embroidered table linen<\/strong>, tablecloths, placemats, napkins. Always in white mercerized combed cotton poplin for bed linen, a coarser cotton for table linen, and linen available upon request. The embroidery colors are infinite: solid tones or multicolored assortments from our collections, or even a color straight from a client’s imagination who provides us with their Pantone. <\/p>

What does not change: the stitch itself, the technique, the hand. And the increasing difficulty in finding embroiderers capable of maintaining it. The savoir-faire is less frequently transmitted. Wedding trousseaux, the traditional space where women embroidered for months, surrounded by their mothers and aunts, are now outsourced or replaced by machine embroidery. Embroiderers trained in the exact technique of the Noon collection become rarer each year. <\/p>

\u201cTwenty-nine years later, Noon embroidery is still as loved and purchased. But I see that the tradition is fading. The stitch itself is changing. This explains why each piece takes the time it takes – and that this time is incompressible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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