Sourcing: Carpets from Persia, Time is right now...
What would life be without the Belgian chocolates, French fragrances, Indian spices, Chinese silks, Italian shoes .. a bit bland don't you think. Thanks to colonial expansions and global trade, people around the world have been able to enjoy these fine things for more than four centuries.
While most finer luxuries of life are available in the US a few things are still hard to get - at least legally, like the Cuban cigars which have been banned ever since the cold-war dispute with the island nation. But that is about to change as the 50-year old ban is about to be lifted. Another thing that's hard to come by are the handmade rugs from Iran. Ever since 1995, a total global trade embargo on Iran to punish them for their Nuclear forays blocked them from exporting their oil, natural gas, and carpets to the word. Again, recent diplomatic breakthroughs have led to unfreezing their US assets and allowing them to trade freely.
But this may have come too late for Iran's carpet industry which has suffered during the total blockade resulting in loss of their production capacity while countries like China and India have stolen much of their demand by selling cheaper (machine-made/hand-made) carpets as inferior substitutes. Iranians kept their industry going while waiting for the ban to lift and and made a lots of rugs. Now with embargo lifted all this inventory is starting to show up at the US wholesalers (on both the East and West coasts) who are selling them on internet auction sites (like eBay). Some of these are going at 60-80% discounts off their prices from 20-yrs ago.
There is just no substitute for the real thing, and right now may be the best time to buy a genuine "Persian" rug. Prices are at all time low and there is lots of inventory. But this won't last forever ... so act quickly so you can enjoy one of the finest things in life and preserve it for the next gen...
* Learn how to buy a good rug. "Persian" is not the same as "Oriental", which is anything that is made in India/China/Pakistan/Nepal...all except Iran, and they have been repeatedly accused of violating many international child labor laws in their 500 yrs old carpet weaving industry which got started with help of the Persian artisans who came with the Mogul rulers to India.
No comments:
Post a Comment