Morocco
A field note on pattern, texture, and color to an infinite degree
We landed in Casablanca after a night flight from JFK, bleary yet ready for whatever came next. I had dreamed of this landing for years.
The owner of Arete, a stunningly beautiful retail and event space in Asheville, was seeking my support in gaining the full economic picture for a new collection she was about to design. That was the catalyst for this particular trip. Our goal was not just landing numbers on a spreadsheet but the actual cost of every thread, every hour, every hand involved in getting a product from a cooperative in the Atlas Mountains to a boutique in the United States. That is the kind of business planning that has to happen in the place itself. You cannot do it from a kitchen table in North Carolina.
We took a train to Marrakesh and settled into a riad near the medina. From there the work fanned out in multiple directions.
There were sourcing visits and studio sessions, furniture and product lines being designed in real time, leather goods and handbags mapped against line items and margin targets. We traveled north toward Tangier and up into the Atlas Mountains to visit a weaving cooperative, getting under the hood of Arete's rug line. I remember standing at the market where the wool was sourced, weighing it, working through the pricing model right there, capturing images of the raw materials alongside the finished pieces to tell the full story of what the product actually was and where it came from.
We walked through forests where the natural materials are sourced to learn about the landscape itself. We visited artisans who had been working on textile lines for years. We came back to Marrakesh to check in on products in progress and think through how the various lines fit together into a coherent collection.
It was number crunching and relationship building and sensory overwhelm all at once. Color and texture everywhere. Conversations about financials and fringe happening in the middle of the most beautiful rooms I have ever been in.
When I think of myself amidst this whirl and swirl, I remember one quiet afternoon. A light rain had come through and I found myself by the pool in the riad courtyard. Orange trees overhead. The whole city going about its life just beyond the walls. My body finally quiet, moving slowly through water after days of moving through markets and mountains and workshops.
I thought: this is what it means to do this work well. To be so fully in the place that the business planning happens as part of the experience rather than despite it.
Arete has since expanded to take groups back to source and to experience the magic for themselves, and to create events back home that tend to the inspiration and connection they carry home. I am so grateful to have been part of this genuinely extraordinary business planning adventure.