Our story
This is who we are
We are Derya and Fotis. We now live in Brooklyn, but we grew up surrounded by the traditional ethnic art of the Mediterranean. We stayed warm under handwoven blankets, our mothers would bring out handmade lace tablecloths for family holiday meals, embroidery decorated our grandmothers’ homes and our grandfathers could make wooden tables by hand. That is how we learned to appreciate the hand-made and how our passion for traditional ethnic craftsmanship was born.
We created Anatolico in 2016, to connect conscious customers with unique handcrafted Anatolian art. Our products range from our flagship Turkish towels to throws, blankets, kaftans, robes, jewelry, and scarves.
Our Story
Our first sale was on a rainy day at a street market in Bushwick, where we showed up with a suitcase full of Turkish towels. That's where we learned that forming real relationships with customers along with having top-quality products would be the keys moving forward.
We spent months traveling around the villages and towns of Turkey in order to find the most authentic local artisan families, who run high-quality, eco-friendly and ethical productions. With their traditional looming techniques and our garment and pattern design, we are privileged to be able to introduce the world to these unique items. In the age of robots and machines, we are proud to be bringing thousands years old authenticity from the hands of the masters to yours.
From that first suitcase, we have grown to designing our own exclusive fabric patterns, working with the best artisans back in Turkey, and adding an array of beautiful products to the mix. We still venture out to street-fairs and holiday markets where we keep on learning from our customers.
About our name
Anatolico comes from the word Anatoli (Ανατολή) which in Greek means east or sunrise. It's hard for Fotis to resist my-big-fat-Greek-wedding etymology explanations. That is where Anatolia, the area which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey, got its name too. The families we work with to produce our products live in the villages of Anatolia and have been weaving for generations.
How our products are made
Our textile products are woven in Turkey, in Derya's hometown close to Izmir, by local artisans that follow the authentic traditional technique. We design all our textile patterns ourselves, and we work with our makers directly to ensure that only the best quality cotton and linen is used in our fabrics.
Our Oya necklaces and crochet scarves are made by a collective of women in the same town and are all made completely by hand.
Turkey is known for producing some of the highest quality cotton products in the world. Our towels, robes and scarves are hand-woven from 100% Turkish cotton or a cotton-linen blend by small, family-run textile makers in Turkey.
Our promise
None of our products are mass-produced, giving each and every product their uniqueness. We are very happy to be able to work with and support the small family businesses that produce our textiles and accessories. We are committed to not letting traditional Anatolian art die and have taken on the mission of introducing the world to these unique products.
It would probably be easier to pick up the phone, order ready-made products from a large factory and have them delivered to us a few days later. We've found though, that making the effort to design our own patterns, working with artisans directly and having products woven with love in small batches really makes the difference in delivering a far superior product.
