stüssy upcycles its t-shirts and wool from atlas mountains into boucherouite moroccan rugs

Stüssy’s second collection of upcycled boucherouite rugs

Clothing brand Stüssy has released its second collection of boucherouite rugs upcycled using its own t-shirts and wool from Atlas Mountain. It teams up with Artisan Project, a collective led by Palestinian-Amercian textile designer Nina Mohammad, to produce the second collection of rugs.

For the weaving and crafting, the collective and clothing brand pair up with the Ain Leuh Women’s Cooperative in Morocco. Inside the home-like space where the women thoroughly weave the rugs, they use ancient practices in their craftsmanship, bundling up the carpets piece by piece with their own hands instead of using machinery.

images courtesy of Stüssy | photos by Antosh Cimoszko

Rugs made from Stüssy’s t-shirts and wool

Stüssy’s second collection of Boucherouite T-shirt Rugs with wool has Nina Mohammad and her Artisan Project drawing design inspiration from ancestral rugs, art, vintage graphics, and nature, from the aerial landscapes and bodies of water to the intricate body works of flora.

From afar, these upcycled rugs resemble roses with their petals folded, creating a bed of flowers in their natural dyes but in reformed shapes. At times, patterns appear in the form of a checkerboard or abstract shapes of human bodies roaming around, always graced by the soft palettes of the t-shirts and wool coming from the Atlas Mountains.

Stüssy released its second collection of boucherouite rugs upcycled using its own t-shirts and wool

Manual looms used to weave and produce textiles

The second collection of Stüssy’s Boucherouite T-shirt Rugs will be available online and in select Stüssy chapter stores. Before this collection, Stüssy had already woven upcycled t-shirts and wool in 2021. They worked with Ain Leuh Women’s Cooperative, which has been home to the Women’s Weaving Cooperative since its inception in 1977.

The cooperative has around 20 active weavers, and for many, these handcrafted and woven rugs are their main source of income for their families. They walk into one of the three crafting buildings, sit, and operate the manual vertical looms used for rug weaving and the horizontal looms used for weaving textiles such as blankets.

Stüssy teams up with Artisan Project, a collective led by Palestinian-Amercian designer Nina Mohammad

The results afford clients handwoven items such as Boucherouite rugs, blankets, and cushions, most of them made from upcycled Stüssy t-shirts and wool. There’s a free-form style synonymous with Boucherouite rugs, allowing the weavers to upcycle the t-shirt and wool remnant patterns that, other than the brief, may give them the leeway to embed their culture, mastery, and experiences.

They only use a few tools for their rug making: the loom, a pair of clippers, and a comb to keep the fabrics from being tangled. Other than these, they use expertise, years, and hours put into understanding how Boucherouite rugs, blankets, and cushions can come to life without machinery, exhibiting craftsmanship defined by manual work.

Stüssy’s Boucherouite T-shirt Rugs draws inspiration from ancestral rugs and vintage graphics