There is a sea of leather goods throughout the souks: belts, bags, totes, boots, sandals, saddles and my favorite, babouches, the traditional Berber slippers in every color, material, shape and size you could possibly imagine.
Many stalls get their products from small factories that operate within the souk, the person who runs the stall is essentially a salesperson of the products. When I asked for a certain size of a slipper at one of the stalls, which he didn’t have, the keeper asked me to follow him. We sped through the winding, alleys, roads and walkways and eventually ended up in Babouche Nirvana.
Aznag Ali, 33 Souk Smata, Marrakech is filled with the babouches of your dreams, and then some.
From the most basic,
to the unique and elaborate.
I love wearing these comfy, colorful slippers around the house for lounging and entertaining and they make great gifts.
The souk is much more than just stores, it’s an complex industrial structure, we caught glimpses of most every stage of manufacturing of the goods we were seeking. For instance, there’s a whole section devoted to leather making, wandering through we saw workers cutting, sewing, braiding and hammering leather to craft these goods. It’s also common to come across leather pelts, tanned and drying in the hot African sun, the beginning of the process.
Here are babouches framed as art at one of the restaurants we visited.
I found these elaborate saddles and bridles at another shop to be quite a work of art as well.
This beautiful fountain shop was just one place to find incredible hand woven leather belts.
Here’s a pair of Berber slippers I found at another shop and absolutely love, they also made slippers out of denim, brocade and other interesting fabrics.
If you can’t make it to Morocco, maybe you can find something you like Babouchescuir.com, a website that ships traditional Berber babouches, sandals and boots.
This looks Fabulous.