MAKERS | AFRICA | MOROCCO | TEXTILES

Pin Affleck | Textile Designer

Tangier-based textile designer Pin Affleck is a force of nature. A familiar sight in the lanes of the city, with her capacious basket and infectious curiosity, Pin set up Made In Tangier, a studio creating handwoven textiles for the home, in 2020. She has since found recognition and a cult following around the world for her sustainable and elegant designs, in the purest cotton, that evoke the light, tranquillity and spirit of her adopted home on the cusp of both Europe and Africa. 

How did you begin?

When I arrived in Tangier, I quite literally began weaving as a first step, from lengths of cotton for curtains in my flat, beautiful bedspreads with pom pom trims and towels all woven by our local weavers. Fast forward a year and I’d written a business plan on a scrap of paper which soon allowed me to deliver a piece of my world to people in all corners of the globe through setting up Made In Tangier. I drew designs at my kitchen table and got to work with the weavers - using an age-old technique in danger of dying out - insisting on pure cotton colors with a fresh contemporary take, all imagined from my new surroundings.

How did you learn?

I sat alongside the looms and learnt with my hands and heart what really went into the art of weaving in Morocco. Further back, art, design, literature and anything that involves beauty and an imagination has inspired me for as long as I can remember. I was a curious child and later on I studied Fine Art in Melbourne, Australia, before moving onto Sotheby’s (Melbourne) then leaving it all behind to explore.

Those early years of travel and the colorful experiences I had, are probably the reason I now live in Tangier. My interest in textiles also stems from time I spent in Istanbul cataloguing a collection of textiles for an American woman, the anthropologist and photographer, Josephine Powell. I was struck by the Grand Bazaar but even more so by the wooden spoon sellers in the laneways behind. Josephine was probably a huge influence in where I am today.

How do you plan, prepare and create?

In Morocco, anything is possible if you have a certain amount of grit, patience and drive. I had no idea what I was doing when I first arrived in Tangier almost seven years ago for a weekend and never left. Now, my life has become my work and that is enough to completely satisfy me. I love routine and I also enjoy time alone, therefore those early hours of each morning when the city of Tangier still sleeps, are so important for me to achieve a day's work before the city wakes at around 11am. I love to plan and in Morocco plans are seen as a rather suspicious thing!

I can’t live without my notebook where I map out each day, week and year ahead. One thing I have learned from living in Morocco is the importance of patience and accepting that things won’t happen ‘now’, but that if I have a solid plan, they may happen later. That is perfectly fine if I’ve allowed for that. Creating here is wonderful if I apply the above formula and keep an eye on everything, every single day.

I can be found in our office, which is an apartment in one of the quietest streets, overlooking a beautiful private garden. We are surrounded by samples, mistakes and loads of beautiful product ready for shipping. I am very much a detail person, so I spend a lot of time (drinking a lot of coffee) troubleshooting what could go wrong, based on experience, by means of saving time and energy for all of us. The amount of work that goes into any handmade piece is just incredible, so it’s terribly sad when a mistake is made and something has to be made again.

Who or what most influences your work?

I am hugely influenced by my surrounds. Tangier is all about light and color, therefore my work (particularly the woven work) features a lot of white which represents the whitewash of the buildings in the Kasbah and Medina, rose pinks which light up the evening sky, the blue of the sky that Matisse chased during his time here, the green of beautiful, lush tropical gardens - plants thrive in this climate.

I find much inspiration at the homes of friends, many of whom are incredibly creative, or under a loom with our weavers, counting out threads to the tune of Arabic radio, in the straw market picking paint colors for chairs, or whooshing in a petit taxi through this wonderful city I call home When I first arrived in Tangier on the dusk train from Fès, I remember being awash with a strong feeling of coming home - the colors in the early evening are so powerful, just as they are at first light.

What is a typical day?

Most days begin at my kitchen table before the sun has risen. Here I put together a list of all that I wish to achieve that day before driving out to the Atlantic coast as the sun begins to rise for a swim in those often treacherous Atlantic waters! I find this very settling (and awakening) as I imagine the day ahead.

Halima, my trusty business partner and great friend, and I meet and map out who needs to do what. Halima excels in getting things done with our local suppliers and artisans, it is a joy to listen to her ticking things off the list in ‘darija’ (Moroccan Arabic) while I respond to mountains of emails and enquiries.

During the summer months we play host to endless visitors we’ve created curated experiences for and there is hence no typical day from April - October, it’s a juggle! But, I wouldn’t have it any other way - I am so passionate about sharing a version of Tangier that I have come to love and one that hopefully allows our guests to better understand this city, its deeply layered history, artisans and people.

One more thing... An object you cherish?

I always carry something home with me, whether it be pebbles from a beach or cutlery from a flea market, for example. I treasure anything given to me by friends and family and believe that it is these objects that form little patterns in ones life in amongst the things I have chosen for myself. As I type, I am looking at my kitchen dresser where white Astier de Villatte pottery bought years ago in Paris sit alongside four sweet little egg cups, a Christmas present from a dear friend and found on the Portobello Road are surrounded by place cards from happy dinner parties along with well travelled paperbacks and a pair of scissors. I think that sums it up!