Aleppo soap , along with Ghraoui chocolate, are without doubt the two best purchases in Syria! I had done my usual blog search prior to our visit to Syria to see what we would find in its famous souks and to think about my luggage requirements. Soap was definitely high on the list. Made of olive oil and laurel, I knew that, as with any good olive oil for eating, aged soap was the thing to ask for. How to distinguish old from new? The wider the “rind” of brown on the outside of a bar of soap, the older the soap. The best savon d’alep has been stored in piles like bricks and aged for one year after which it is weighted and packed in jute sacks and sent to market.
80% olive oil, 20 percent laurel oil and mixed with ash (in former times sourced from the desert plant salsola kali and now industrially produced), it is completely natural and beautifully soft on the skin.
The oldest hard soap in the world (yes, here again we have Syria taking the cake for another “original”!), it is said to have been Cleopatra’s beauty secret…
It’s a great gift to bring home and I didn’t have to pull out the additional Lonchamps bags!
John Derian is a treasure. It's not that there aren't many with talent and vision because there are, the world over. But Derian has other attributes that make him so beloved. His eye is unerring, his sense of scale is perfect, he layers cultures and eras seamlessly in a room. And he is accessible in brick and mortar. His two shops on East Second Street have been haunts for years. One carries the decoupage he designs and constructs locally (and that make the best gifts ever) along with the coveted ceramics of Astier de Villatte. The second Dry Goods store next door showcases quirky antiques, an assortment of vintage furniture, stacks of heavy french linen, Moroccan rugs and soft cotton Indian clothing. Both are small, but intriguing and interesting enough to seduce you on a journey of the senses.
And now, Derian has opened on Christopher Street in a double-windowed storefront of a two-story 18th century house. It's like walking in to another world. Traditional Astier, and the later Derian/Astier collaborative pieces, line the walls from roof to floor of the front room. The back room, wallpapered in his new cabbage rose design and lit by beautiful Balthus-designed standing lamps with parchment shades, offers a living room in which to settle in, thumb through books and albums, and rest the soul.
So, go to shop, or simply go to travel in spirit to another place and time.
https://www.johnderian.com/pages/our-locations"
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