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“I’m all about things that have a story and history, and things that are handmade which are not necessarily perfect or a little rough around the edges,” Merz said, indicating the salvaged edges of the blanket and its hand-tied fringe.
After returning to Los Angeles, Merz said his friends tried to buy the textiles he brought back with him, prompting him to start selling the textiles to stores across the city. He later traveled to Turkey to broaden his comprehension of textile-making techniques by learning traditional weaving in a bazaar and meeting with Turkish handweavers.
“It took a long time to get to be able to meet these amazing weavers," Merz said. “But it comes down to a matter of working in the right place like the bazaar, meeting the right people and staying curious.”
Lindsay Parton, founder of the curated retail style and design space Alchemy Works, said the company's pop-up store in Japan chose to display Mr. Merz's Burmese blankets as framed art pieces, imbuing a new twist on the display of Mr. Merz's textiles.
“When we tell our customers about the story of how the Burmese textiles are handmade by women in Burma, the story really resonates with them and they fall in love with it,” she said.
Parton said the Burmese blankets are the most popular Mr. Merz item they sell, and she cherishes her own smaller version of the Burmese Daily Life blanket, which Merz created for her son with a customized embroidered name.
Although the Burmese pieces are popular for their decorative purposes, Merz said he wanted to create more functional items as well. He worked with a Turkish weaver to create a black and white geometric-patterned loop towel. Thumbing the fabric, Merz reflected on a childhood surrounded by the beautiful and sturdy draperies, napkins and tablecloths of his mother’s linen wear textile company.
“We have always had nice textiles around,” Merz recalled. “We always had nice, solid duvet covers and blankets and my mom made each of my siblings and I a quilt when we were born.”
On the studio's whitewashed wall hung a glossy framed black-and-white photograph of another Turkish weaver with whom Merz works. In the photograph, he pulls silk threads from cocoons, which would eventually be transformed into yarn through a spinning wheel.
“In Turkey, handweaving was on the verge of extinction but there is a handful of people like myself who care about handweavers and keeping these small, family-run studios alive,” Merz said.
Angie Socias, who designs the interiors of residential homes in Bel-Air, Beverly Hills and Orange County, works in a studio space in the same building as Merz. Socias said Merz's designs showcase structured patterns and elegant color juxtapositions.
As Merz's paintbrush traced a streak of pink watercolor pigment across a page from his sketchbook, Merz explained that his design process begins with a simple drawing. He then converts his sketches into flat images on his computer, where he makes minor stylistic changes. From there, he speaks with the Turkish or Burmese weavers he works with to establish whether the design is able to be produced on a loom.
Merz said handwoven items retain a traditional quality that factory production fails to achieve. He hopes to help preserve the tradition behind the family activity of making textiles, the techniques of weaving and the historical continuity of using thousand-year-old generational looms through his work.
“It’s just in my nature, there is something about textiles, the tactility of it,” Merz said. “And these are just charming.”