Marrakech leather, tanned the eleventh century way

By the eastern gate of the Marrakech medina, the Bab Debbagh tanneries still cure hides the way they did when the city was a caravan stop: soaked in lime, softened, then tanned in stone vats with mimosa bark, pomegranate rind and tamarisk. No chromium, no factory drums. The process takes weeks where industrial tanning takes hours.

Vegetable tanned leather behaves differently for the rest of its life. It darkens and softens with use instead of cracking, which is why a Marrakech pouf or a pair of babouche slippers a decade old looks better than it did new. The souk workshops cut, dye and stitch within walking distance of the vats.

The same workshops that sell in the souk list on 1VIM with the door price shown: the maker's price, shipping from Morocco, and whatever your country charges at the border, all before you pay. Haggling is part of the souk; the pin is for everyone who cannot get there.