BOKJA'S RESTAURANT COMISSION
The restaurant, Meat the Fish, just off the Kings Road, is the first London outpost of the restaurant which is a big hit in Beirut, Lebanon (it started in 2011 as a delivery service – curating the best meat, fish and other premium ingredients and there are now three Meat the Fish locations in Lebanon). The restaurants are listed in the World’s 50 best Discovery List.
The London branch serves Mediterranean-Asian inspired fare, with a Lebanese twist. It's quite a coup to bring Bokja to London - founded in 2000 by Beirut-based designers Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri, the textile design studio Bokja specialise in one-off pieces upholstered with a wide variety of vintage and contemporary textiles. They scour flea markets and antique stores for vintage furniture items from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, repair them, and envelope the forms in a colourful array of recycled textiles and embroideries from all around the world.
Image courtesy of Bokja
In some cases, more than twenty cloth patterns may be used to cover a single chair or sofa. These include textiles and tapestries from Levant and countries along the Silk Road - Uzbeki national fabrics, Damascene brocade, Chinese silks and brocades, Lebanese traditional costume materials, beautiful Russian chintzes, embroideries from Turkey, suzanis (embroidered tribal textiles) from Central Asia.
The house style is a unique, Bokja-style patchwork technique. They’ll spontaneously mix a 150-year-old Ottoman brocade, a Bedouin dress, a 1970s Oilily dress and match them with a piece of Chinese silk. They call it "bokjadizing".
Image courtesy of Bokja
“We’re capricious,” they admitted with a laugh. “We take fabrics that shouldn't be together, and make them into a harmony.” They enjoy the fact that fabrics from countries that are geographically and politically apart can be brought together.
They are creating something they hope the younger design-orientated generation will appreciate - rather than dismissing the embroideries as old-fashioned. "It's about keeping the link between the past and the present."
Image courtesy of Bokja
Launched at the 2013 Milan Design Week, Bokja's Migration Collection references stories of movement and change from all over the world. They aim to capture the fundamental human experience of bundling up belongings and moving on.
There are rugs and wallpapers decorated with migrating birds; as well as a vibrant collection of wall hangings depicting migrants. Here the embroidered faces of exiles Gerard Depardieu, Frieda Kahlo and Trotsky gaze out at you, alongside members of Bokja workforce who had to leave their homeland through war, economics, instability, ambition or even love.
Image: Bokja Migration Collection, 2013. Image courtesy of Bokja
"We try to weave their stories on our textiles. Migration could be sad, there is a lot of nostalgia, but it's the way of the world. Life is a series of upheavals and we express many of those issues in our work."
Each piece is created in their Beirut "laboratory" by Lebanese, Egyptian and Palestinian women who have an innate sense of the fabric’s character, and who also may be nomads.
Image: Bokja Migration Collection, 2013. Image courtesy of Bokja
Today Bokja (pronounced “Boke-Jah”), is an internationally renowned home décor brand. Clients include Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Sandra Bullock, and Salma Hayek as well as designers Matthew Williamson and Manolo Blahnik. French shoe designer Christian Laboutin has at least one piece of Bokja furniture in each of his boutiques. Li Edelkoort, the renowned Paris-based trend forecaster is a big fan.
But the studio came about organically through a female friendship. When Baroudi first met Hibri in 1999, Hibri had already made a name for herself selling antiques. Baroudi's passion has always been textiles, which she brings back home after every trip abroad. The women each loved what the other one did; and then, one day, they put one of Baroudi’s antique textiles over one of Hibri’s sofas – and a brand was born.
Image: The Izmir Print by Bokja. Image courtesy of Bokja
They reupholstered a group of furniture in these vibrant ancient fabrics, making each a patchwork work of art. It was a sell-out. A Saudi Arabian princess got to hear about their work and asked them to do a collection for her.
Today Bokja have their own shop in the Saifi district of Beirut, a historic neighbourhood known for its carpentry workshops. The store opens onto a garden, furnished with tables and chairs, where friends can meet and enjoy a cup of coffee in the leafy surroundings.
Image: The Orion Print by Bokja. Image courtesy of Bokja
The artisans who help them create these one-off assemblages – the painters, woodworkers, upholsterers, embroiderers and other craftsmen – all work in the neighbourhood in little ateliers and workshops.
At root their work is all about finding a way to preserve ancient textiles and so, in a sense, keep alive old traditions. They cut up all the fabrics with respect. Nothing goes to waste. "It's a very woman thing. We want to keep this resourcefulness alive." Bokja’s name is a Turkish word that describes the fabrics used to carry a bride’s dowry. Lovingly embroidered by the bride’s female relatives, it is a deliberate link between the life she is leaving behind and the new one she is embarking on in marriage. "It’s a woman’s life. From the moment she marries, her dowry is part of her bokja. She carries it with her until her death, where she is then wrapped in and buried with it. It can be very, very simple or it can be embroidered and embellished with gold and jewels."
Bokja celebrate women - and the honesty and authenticity you find in their work . Each piece they make comes with a name (“It could be one of our children’s names, or a friend’s name or something from a novel or a place,” says Hibri) and a “passport” of its own, explaining the history of the textiles and the traditions behind the weaving, the tapestry or the embroidery.
Image: Arab Seasons by Bokja. courtesy of Bokja
Work is political but on human scale. "Even if we're talking politics, it's from a woman's point of view. Not to say: 'This is right, this is wrong.' But just to go: 'Ok, let's stop and talk, there's something going on here."
They have created two embroidered maps of the Arab world that present a tapestry of changing politics and traditions. Arab Fall features pairs of imported jeans as a symbol of cheap Western fast food and clothes that have replaced traditional Arabic traditions and textiles.
While their Arab Spring wall-hanging (inspired by the wave of demonstrations and protests that began in 2010) is embroidered onto a valuable old carpet, in a depilated state. But it is decorated with a woman riding away on a horse on the road to an unknown world - an enduring emblem of hope.
"The Arab Spring is affecting the whole world, we try to represent the ripple effect when you throw a stone in the water and how everything is connected."
Image: detail of Arab Seasons by Bokja. Image courtesy of Bokja
In the past, they have designed fabric-wrapped tyres as part of a protest against tyre-burning, a common activity used during times of political unrest in the Middle East.
But even the most poignant pieces are full of humour and cartoon colour. The Little Red Riding Hood chair (part of the Storytelling Series) features Red Riding Hood wearing a veil. They even recast Hansel and Gretel as Japanese - where the house is made of sushi and they are wearing beautiful kimonos.
Similarly the Migration Collection is clearly inspired by the painful immigration of Syrians to Lebanon, but it also reflects the hopes and fears of all people, especially the young, who make the brave decision to create a home of their own far from their family or the place where they were born.
Hibri and Baroudi hope their designs elicit a sort of "dialogue" with their customers. When they displayed the collection at Milan, visitors to the stand wanted to share their personal migration stories. "We were getting reactions that were very moving and meaningful."
In their Beirut boutique, they sell everything from furniture and hangings to plates and cushions. They've covered cars, Tv sets and a giant horse statue in vibrant textiles but increasingly they are drawn to architectural installation.
Image: And Then There Were None”, is an installation of spheres each depicting dictators from around the globe. Injecting a twist of dark humour, Bojka presents the installation in parallel with the popular nursery rhyme, ‘The Little Indians’. Warning of the timeless phenomena of dictatorship while playfully questioning a day when there will be none. Image courtesy of Bokja
Exhibited earlier this year, And Then There Were None is a collection of tactile textile spheres, representing leading figures fallen from power. Hand-embroidered figures include Marie Antoinette, Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein – as well as some more allegorical renderings of the situations in Syria and Palestine.
But juxtaposed with the lines of the children's nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians, it implies one day we will have a world without repression and dictatorship.
Seeing these figures who once inspired so much fear reduced to textile satires is both powerful and uplifting.
Text by Liz Hoggard
Find out more:
website: www.bokjadesign.com
Instagram: @bokjadesign
The London branch serves Mediterranean-Asian inspired fare, with a Lebanese twist. It's quite a coup to bring Bokja to London - founded in 2000 by Beirut-based designers Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri, the textile design studio Bokja specialise in one-off pieces upholstered with a wide variety of vintage and contemporary textiles. They scour flea markets and antique stores for vintage furniture items from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, repair them, and envelope the forms in a colourful array of recycled textiles and embroideries from all around the world.
Image courtesy of Bokja
In some cases, more than twenty cloth patterns may be used to cover a single chair or sofa. These include textiles and tapestries from Levant and countries along the Silk Road - Uzbeki national fabrics, Damascene brocade, Chinese silks and brocades, Lebanese traditional costume materials, beautiful Russian chintzes, embroideries from Turkey, suzanis (embroidered tribal textiles) from Central Asia.
The house style is a unique, Bokja-style patchwork technique. They’ll spontaneously mix a 150-year-old Ottoman brocade, a Bedouin dress, a 1970s Oilily dress and match them with a piece of Chinese silk. They call it "bokjadizing".
Image courtesy of Bokja
“We’re capricious,” they admitted with a laugh. “We take fabrics that shouldn't be together, and make them into a harmony.” They enjoy the fact that fabrics from countries that are geographically and politically apart can be brought together.
They are creating something they hope the younger design-orientated generation will appreciate - rather than dismissing the embroideries as old-fashioned. "It's about keeping the link between the past and the present."
Image courtesy of Bokja
Launched at the 2013 Milan Design Week, Bokja's Migration Collection references stories of movement and change from all over the world. They aim to capture the fundamental human experience of bundling up belongings and moving on.
There are rugs and wallpapers decorated with migrating birds; as well as a vibrant collection of wall hangings depicting migrants. Here the embroidered faces of exiles Gerard Depardieu, Frieda Kahlo and Trotsky gaze out at you, alongside members of Bokja workforce who had to leave their homeland through war, economics, instability, ambition or even love.
Image: Bokja Migration Collection, 2013. Image courtesy of Bokja
"We try to weave their stories on our textiles. Migration could be sad, there is a lot of nostalgia, but it's the way of the world. Life is a series of upheavals and we express many of those issues in our work."
Each piece is created in their Beirut "laboratory" by Lebanese, Egyptian and Palestinian women who have an innate sense of the fabric’s character, and who also may be nomads.
Image: Bokja Migration Collection, 2013. Image courtesy of Bokja
Today Bokja (pronounced “Boke-Jah”), is an internationally renowned home décor brand. Clients include Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Sandra Bullock, and Salma Hayek as well as designers Matthew Williamson and Manolo Blahnik. French shoe designer Christian Laboutin has at least one piece of Bokja furniture in each of his boutiques. Li Edelkoort, the renowned Paris-based trend forecaster is a big fan.
But the studio came about organically through a female friendship. When Baroudi first met Hibri in 1999, Hibri had already made a name for herself selling antiques. Baroudi's passion has always been textiles, which she brings back home after every trip abroad. The women each loved what the other one did; and then, one day, they put one of Baroudi’s antique textiles over one of Hibri’s sofas – and a brand was born.
Image: The Izmir Print by Bokja. Image courtesy of Bokja
They reupholstered a group of furniture in these vibrant ancient fabrics, making each a patchwork work of art. It was a sell-out. A Saudi Arabian princess got to hear about their work and asked them to do a collection for her.
Today Bokja have their own shop in the Saifi district of Beirut, a historic neighbourhood known for its carpentry workshops. The store opens onto a garden, furnished with tables and chairs, where friends can meet and enjoy a cup of coffee in the leafy surroundings.
Image: The Orion Print by Bokja. Image courtesy of Bokja
The artisans who help them create these one-off assemblages – the painters, woodworkers, upholsterers, embroiderers and other craftsmen – all work in the neighbourhood in little ateliers and workshops.
At root their work is all about finding a way to preserve ancient textiles and so, in a sense, keep alive old traditions. They cut up all the fabrics with respect. Nothing goes to waste. "It's a very woman thing. We want to keep this resourcefulness alive." Bokja’s name is a Turkish word that describes the fabrics used to carry a bride’s dowry. Lovingly embroidered by the bride’s female relatives, it is a deliberate link between the life she is leaving behind and the new one she is embarking on in marriage. "It’s a woman’s life. From the moment she marries, her dowry is part of her bokja. She carries it with her until her death, where she is then wrapped in and buried with it. It can be very, very simple or it can be embroidered and embellished with gold and jewels."
Bokja celebrate women - and the honesty and authenticity you find in their work . Each piece they make comes with a name (“It could be one of our children’s names, or a friend’s name or something from a novel or a place,” says Hibri) and a “passport” of its own, explaining the history of the textiles and the traditions behind the weaving, the tapestry or the embroidery.
Image: Arab Seasons by Bokja. courtesy of Bokja
Work is political but on human scale. "Even if we're talking politics, it's from a woman's point of view. Not to say: 'This is right, this is wrong.' But just to go: 'Ok, let's stop and talk, there's something going on here."
They have created two embroidered maps of the Arab world that present a tapestry of changing politics and traditions. Arab Fall features pairs of imported jeans as a symbol of cheap Western fast food and clothes that have replaced traditional Arabic traditions and textiles.
While their Arab Spring wall-hanging (inspired by the wave of demonstrations and protests that began in 2010) is embroidered onto a valuable old carpet, in a depilated state. But it is decorated with a woman riding away on a horse on the road to an unknown world - an enduring emblem of hope.
"The Arab Spring is affecting the whole world, we try to represent the ripple effect when you throw a stone in the water and how everything is connected."
Image: detail of Arab Seasons by Bokja. Image courtesy of Bokja
In the past, they have designed fabric-wrapped tyres as part of a protest against tyre-burning, a common activity used during times of political unrest in the Middle East.
But even the most poignant pieces are full of humour and cartoon colour. The Little Red Riding Hood chair (part of the Storytelling Series) features Red Riding Hood wearing a veil. They even recast Hansel and Gretel as Japanese - where the house is made of sushi and they are wearing beautiful kimonos.
Similarly the Migration Collection is clearly inspired by the painful immigration of Syrians to Lebanon, but it also reflects the hopes and fears of all people, especially the young, who make the brave decision to create a home of their own far from their family or the place where they were born.
Hibri and Baroudi hope their designs elicit a sort of "dialogue" with their customers. When they displayed the collection at Milan, visitors to the stand wanted to share their personal migration stories. "We were getting reactions that were very moving and meaningful."
In their Beirut boutique, they sell everything from furniture and hangings to plates and cushions. They've covered cars, Tv sets and a giant horse statue in vibrant textiles but increasingly they are drawn to architectural installation.
Image: And Then There Were None”, is an installation of spheres each depicting dictators from around the globe. Injecting a twist of dark humour, Bojka presents the installation in parallel with the popular nursery rhyme, ‘The Little Indians’. Warning of the timeless phenomena of dictatorship while playfully questioning a day when there will be none. Image courtesy of Bokja
Exhibited earlier this year, And Then There Were None is a collection of tactile textile spheres, representing leading figures fallen from power. Hand-embroidered figures include Marie Antoinette, Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein – as well as some more allegorical renderings of the situations in Syria and Palestine.
But juxtaposed with the lines of the children's nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians, it implies one day we will have a world without repression and dictatorship.
Seeing these figures who once inspired so much fear reduced to textile satires is both powerful and uplifting.
Text by Liz Hoggard
Find out more:
website: www.bokjadesign.com
Instagram: @bokjadesign