Boucherouite: The Ultimate Look

With globalization at its peak, the option to mix another culture with one’s is on the rise. People from all over the world like to beautify their home and they do various types of modifications to get the perfect look matching their style. Nowadays, the Boucherouite is very popular and our Berber shop offers a variety of Bourcherouite rugs. It is a kind of rag rug made from torn pieces of pre-used clothing. This is a remarkable substitute for all the traditional materials like wool from sheep used for making rugs. This development is a result of widespread cultural, social and economic changes in the rural areas of Morocco. This is basically a move from old practices of animal husbandry towards a more settled type of farming and other kinds of rural employment.

Materials Used

Traditionally, the raw material used for making Moroccan carpets was wool and because of so much production and popularity of Boucherouite, the wool has become a rare raw material and the substitutes have gained much importance. The raw materials now used have a wide variation and the materials include recycled rag’s strips and yarns from various ‘found’ remnants of textile like cotton, wool, plastic, synthetic fibers, nylon and Lurex. The usage of these substitute materials or better say, development in the field of rag rugs started in the time period during 1960s and 1970s in the plain areas around the Boujad and Beni Mellal towns which were settled mainly by Arabs.

The Evolution

The evolution of this artwork started from the year 1990 when the substitute materials were started being used largely in creating carpets and rugs. This style was widely accepted and even the remote regions of Berber tribe like High and Middle regions of Atlas mountain accepted this change. Prior to the era of 1960s or 1950s, the traditional carpets and rugs were primarily designed by regional stylists and the real areas of origin of Boucherouite or ‘rag rugs’ are still unknown. It is also hard to find the origin on the basis of any particular stylistic features or technical characteristics.

The Misunderstanding

In the marketplace, you might have often come across the term “Boujad” and don’t be surprised to know that this is a misleading term in relation to these rugs. The rugs which were made after 1950s in the Boujad region were very similar to these rag rugs because the rugs production in Boujad area was also famous for bearing its own individual style which was free from all kinds of rules and regulations. At present, this work is done in every region of Morocco in a manner very similar to this.

The main reason for usage of various materials in making these rugs is to give them resemblance of traditionally used sleeping carpets. Those carpets were made to fulfil domestic requirement without any intention to use them commercially. Today, Boucherouite are famous because they reveal an amazing creative vitality which can be said as an adaptive continuance of the Moroccan culture with the help of contemporary means.