It all comes together to form an evocative medley of textures and colors. And while The Levant Shop represents thousands of years of craftsmanship history (Köprülü and Muselle can wax poetic on the Silk Road’s influence on Levantine decorative arts—their Iznik collection is based on Iznik ceramics which is Turkey’s answer to the Chinese blue-and-white ceramics craze of the 15th century), their pieces don’t look like souvenirs. They’re carefully edited and crafted to fit into modern households far beyond the Levant.
“We worked with each artisan’s hand and eye,” says Köprülü of the design process, which was a collaboration between every craftsperson. “It really depends on the artisan, but we have learned not to necessarily always come to them with an exact design.” For their Iznik collection of ceramics hand-painted in the Turkish city of Iznik, however, design inspirations had to be exact. “Iznik artistry is almost mathematics,” she continues. “It’s really Islamic in the sense that they’re mathematicians in the way they approach their technique. So we have been incredibly specific about this flower being half a centimeter from that one.”