Kilim weaving regions of Anatolia

For over thirty years, we have travelled Anatolia in search of these pieces that nomadic families wove for themselves, never imagining they would one day be sold. Here are the lands that gave them life.

Region

Western Anatolia and the Aegean

This is the most represented region in our selection, and for good reason. Western Anatolia has always been a land of passage and exchange, and its kilims carry that memory. Compositions here tend to be more open, palettes softer, heirs to a craft refined through contact with the great trade routes. Afyon is renowned for its kilims with deep, dark borders that frame the whole like a quiet night around a landscape. Further south, towards the Aegean coast, palettes lighten and motifs sometimes grow more floral, shaped by centuries of exchange with Greek and Levantine cultures. Weavers of this area also mastered complex techniques such as cicim and zili, where extra threads embroidered onto the weft create effects of relief and lustre.

Weaving towns

Uşak kilims rank among the most sought-after by collectors. Their shades of red and blue, built up through successive dye baths, produce effects of depth that no industrial reproduction will ever equal. Çanakkale kilims have the delicacy of watercolours and the resilience of pieces that have crossed a century without yielding.

Region

Central Anatolia

The heart of Anatolia is a land of contrasts: burning summers, relentless winters, vast plateaus swept by wind. The kilims woven there carry something of that austerity, an economy of means that makes every colour choice and every motif absolutely deliberate. Konya, capital of the whirling dervishes, produced kilims of a silent spirituality, where medallion motifs seem to turn upon themselves. Sivas and Sarkisla are renowned for their horizontal band compositions of rare precision. Sivrihisar, woven in exceptionally fine wool, presents details of an almost unreal precision for pieces made without plan or preliminary drawing.

Weaving towns

Konya kilims are recognisable by their central medallions and palettes dominated by brick red and midnight blue. Those from Sivas, in horizontal bands of rare colour precision, are among the most sought-after by discerning collectors.

Region

South-Eastern Anatolia

This is where kilim art perhaps reaches its most raw and sincere form. Nomadic families wove here on narrow, portable looms, producing kilims in two parts sewn together — a central seam that is not a defect but the trace of a life in motion. Adana, one of our most represented origins, produces kilims of strong character, with deep reds and dense geometric compositions. The colours are carried by vegetable dyes extracted from plants and minerals known only to these lands.

Weaving towns

Gaziantep kilims are recognisable by their warm, earthy palette, where garnet red meets patinated ivory. Those from Mardin carry the influence of blended Arab and Kurdish cultures, in compositions that tell of centuries of coexistence.

Region

The Mediterranean Coast

Between sea and mountain, the Anatolian Mediterranean coast produced kilims of a particular luminosity. Weavers of this coastal strip worked in an environment radically different from the central plateaus, and their pieces bear that trace: warmer palettes, often freer compositions, wool nourished by a mild climate. Antalya and Anamur are the best-known centres of this area, but it is often in the inland villages that the most skilled weavers were found.

Weaving towns

Kilims from this region are rare in European collections. Their apparent simplicity conceals a mastery of weaving inherited from very ancient traditions, predating the great nomadic migrations of subsequent centuries.

Region

Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus

Eastern Anatolia is the territory of the great nomads, tribes who followed their flocks across altitudes and distances that are hard to imagine today. This is where the central seam is most present, not as an unwanted technical necessity, but as the mark of a freedom. At the border with the Caucasus, in the regions of Kars and Ardahan, influences intersect in kilims of fascinating complexity. Geometric motifs reach exceptional density here, and certain pieces carry the Soumak technique, an additional weave on the weft that creates a unique relief and solidity.

Weaving towns

Kars kilims are woven with an almost obsessive precision, in a palette where deep blues and dark reds create optical effects that photographers struggle to capture faithfully. They need to be seen in person, in natural light, to understand what makes them alive.

Region

Northern Anatolia

Between the Black Sea and the central Anatolian plateaus, this region produced kilims of deceptive simplicity. Seemingly plainer than their southern or eastern counterparts, they reveal on closer inspection a remarkable technical sophistication: variations of texture in the weft, shadow effects created by the alternation of dyed and natural fibres. Northern weavers often worked with a longer, silkier wool that gives their kilims a gently lustrous quality that evolves beautifully over time.

Weaving towns

Black Sea kilims are among the least known outside Turkey. Their rarity in Western collections makes them all the more precious for those who know how to recognise them.

Beyond Anatolia

Afghanistan, contemporary kilims

Our contemporary Afghan kilims form a distinct family within our selection. Hand-woven in natural wool in northern Afghanistan, they are made today by craftspeople who perpetuate ancestral techniques in formats and palettes designed for modern interiors. These are new pieces, but not industrial ones: each is unique, every irregularity the trace of a hand and a gesture. Our Art Déco collection is its most refined expression, with pared-back geometric compositions in natural tones that sit as naturally in a Parisian apartment as in a New York loft.

Style

These kilims are often the first purchase of clients who never thought of themselves as rug enthusiasts. Their graphic clarity and natural colour range make them easy to integrate — and they often open the appetite for antique pieces.

Discover all our kilims

We personally select every kilim. Each piece in our collection is identified by its region and exact origin.