The map hidden inside the collection

Line up the names of the pieces and something odd happens. They stop reading like a product list and start reading like an itinerary.

South, to the sand

Merzouga is a village at the edge of the Sahara, at the foot of the Erg Chebbi dunes. It is where most people who say they have seen the Moroccan desert have actually been. The dunes there run orange to deep red depending on the hour, which is a useful thing to remember when you look at Merzouga Clay and its red geometric base.

Sahara Dunes keeps the same register in a single tapered orange drop.

Up, to the snow

Toubkal is the highest peak in North Africa, in the High Atlas south of Marrakech. It gives its name to the bag, whose triangular silhouette we borrowed from the shape you see first from a distance. We wrote about that in the mountain behind the Tobkal bag.

Atlas is the range itself, and it appears twice: in Atlas Blue and in Atlas Stardrops.

Inside the cities

A medina is the old walled quarter of a North African city, and Fes has the most famous one in Morocco, a maze that has been inhabited continuously for more than a thousand years. Hence Fes Medina, and the shorter Med-ina.

A kasbah is a fortified building, usually of rammed earth, with square towers and blank lower walls. It is one of the most graphic pieces of architecture in the country, all straight lines and shadow, which is why Kasbah ended up as a sculptural silver and midnight-purple form.

A riad is the opposite: a house turned inward, built around a courtyard and a fountain, quiet on the street side and elaborate within. Riad layers violet, blue and pink behind a plain silver hoop, which is roughly the same trick.

One garden, one festival

Majorelle is the garden in Marrakech planted by the painter Jacques Majorelle and later saved by Yves Saint Laurent, known worldwide for a single shade of cobalt so specific it carries the name Majorelle blue. Both Majorelle Filigree Hoops and Majorelle Petal Studs nod to it.

Mawazine shares its name with the music festival held every year in Rabat, one of the largest in the world by attendance. Mawazine Glow is our loudest pair, with fuchsia sunbursts and a fringe of silver chain, which feels about right.

And Paris, twice

The studio draws in Paris, and the city gets its own entries: Mosaic de Paris, and Bauhaus Marrakech, which puts a European design school and a Moroccan city in the same three words on purpose.

None of this is decoration. ISLI means love in Berber, and the naming follows the same logic as the name itself: hold the two places together rather than choose. There is more of that story on our story, and the pieces themselves are in earrings and shoulder bags.