A Kilim dealer Aelfie Oudghiri, sells vintage, and designs her own line of rugs. Photos by victoria stillwell B AELFIE, located in Bushwick recently opened for business (by appointment). Photos by victoria stillwell C Rugs from Tunisia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco, are among the AELFIE vintage collection. Photos by victoria stillwell
When Aelfie Oudghiri was 17 years old, she sat in a Turkish rug shop and negotiated with the dealer for six hours. She bartered so long her brother fell asleep, and the store closed while they haggled. “It just felt really natural and fun,” recalls Oudghiri, who’s half Turkish on her mother’s side. Bargain concluded, she parted with two prizes: a flat-woven tribal rug, or kilim, that now decorates her Bushwick showroom, and an admirer. “The owner sent me Christmas cards for years!” she says. “I think we connected because I’ve always loved talking to people, be they Upper East Side doyennes or old Middle Eastern dudes.”
This gift for gab serves Oudghiri well, along with her innate ability to sort through heaps of tapestries from around the world and pick the distinctive pieces best suited for a New York market. “I buy partly what I like, but also think in terms of what will most match an American couch,” she says. In business for only two years, the Columbia University grad has already established her reputation as an accomplished kilim dealer. Stacks of folded carpets made in Tunisia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, the former Yugoslavia, or the Caucasus fill her spacious 12,000-square-foot Varick Avenue studio.
AELFIE, located in Bushwick recently opened for business (by appointment). Photo by Victoria Stillwell