Hi, I'm Max Önder.
HOW KARAVAN STARTED
As a founder of Karavan, I was born on a coastal town of Black Sea of Turkiye. At about 17, I came to Istanbul, the city I fell in love with.
After my military service, I was given the opportunity to work with one of the most creative minds in the antique and new carpet business, who also had
happened to be a very successful banker, who graduated from the London School of Economics. Because of his diverse interests in other businesses, he needed a very reliable manager. Of course, I had no experience in this kind of trade due to the fact that in the area I grew up, there was no carpet weaving, but mainly hazelnut traders and fishermen.
Those were the things I was familiar with. I must say that I had the spirit of an entrepreneur even while at the elementary school, (I used to collect snails from nettle plants very early in the morning with the help of morning dew and sell them to dealers then who would sell them to France).
The Story of Karavan
How Karavan Started
As the founder of Karavan, I was born in a coastal town along the Black Sea in Türkiye. At around 17, I moved to Istanbul—a city I instantly fell in love with.
After completing my military service, I had the opportunity to work alongside one of the most creative minds in the antique and new carpet business. He was also a successful banker and a graduate of the London School of Economics. Due to his involvement in several other ventures, he needed a trustworthy and capable manager.
At the time, I had no experience in the carpet trade. In the region where I grew up, there was no tradition of weaving—our livelihoods were mostly centered around fishing and hazelnut trading, which were the worlds I knew well.
That said, the spirit of entrepreneurship had always been with me. Even in elementary school, I was finding creative ways to earn—like collecting snails from nettle plants early in the morning, thanks to the help of morning dew, and selling them to dealers who exported them to France.
Rug Making
These rugs were woven vertically by pulling the knots down. As a result, if one looks against the pile (the direction the rug was knotted) it looks darker, however, from the opposite direction the rug looks lighter. This effect can be more or less pronounced depending on the lighting.
The specialized knotting technique used to produce these rugs requires gentler hands and therefore are typically woven by women. This is a great source of income and helps create gender equality in pay to Turkish villagers. Importantly, children’s hands are not utilized in the production of these rugs, child labor is strictly forbidden in Turkey.
Larger antique rugs were mostly commissioned by local dignitaries or Europe’s affluent class. As such, the materials used in these rugs are of the highest quality.
For those of you who may have allergies to carpets, it is important to know that none of our rugs contain wool that is bleached. The chemicals used in bleaching wool are what cause a majority of carpet related allergies.
Remember that each rug has history and meaning behind each symbol, color, and design and I am happy to share my knowledge of them.