The Gallery
La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan gallery is designed as a portal into the rich cultural heritage of Uzbekistan, a place where you can discover not only exquisite hand-crafted furnishings for your home and spectacular ikat fabrics but also the stories behind them.
The Gallery introduces some of Uzbekistan’s most vibrant up-and-coming artists, fashion designers, writers and artisans. Steeped in their country’s thousand-year-old customs, these skilled craftsfolk are forging a new contemporary style, creatively combining time-honoured traditions with modern designs to bring you a range of stylish bespoke items from ceramics to silks that will add an exotic splash of colour to any home.
Maison de l’Ouzbekistan was founded by Dr Lola Tillyaeva (Till), former Permanent Delegate of Uzbekistan to UNESCO, humanitarian and author of the book “Be Your Own Harmonist”. Originally from Uzbekistan, Lola is passionate about Uzbek culture and regards it as a bridge towards fostering peace and tolerance.
Ikat silks
Uzbek ikat silks have recently taken the fashion world by storm and La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan offers unique soft furnishings such as cushion covers made from hand-woven silk fabrics. As well as fashionable silk scarves, we also stock a select range of clothing made from stunning ikat fabrics. Hand-woven silks and cottons to suit any taste from understated two-tone designs to big, bold floral patterns are available by the metre, too, so you can tailor your own haute-couture garments. All our fabrics are made using natural hand-made dyes.
Hand-crafted ceramics
The gallery also showcases a spectacular range of hand-crafted ceramics. Each piece is designed and fired by expert potters in Uzbekistan, many of whom hail from a dynasty of artisans. Our range includes large traditional platters as well as bowls and plates of all shapes and sizes, and delicate tea-bowls.
La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan offers visitors the chance to discover unusual carved wooden items such as stylish bookstands, attractive trinket boxes and decorative plates.
Our Boutique
La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan – The Heart of the Silk Road in the Heart of Paris
Stepping into La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan is like stepping into a scene from 1001 Nights. But with a modern twist. Here in this crisp, state-of-the-art boutique, Silk Road enigma blends seamlessly with modern design. As befits a Gallery at the crossroads of cultures, La Maison de l’Ouzbekistan stands on the famous Rue de Rivoli at the crossroads of the city’s renowned Marais and Quartier Latin districts, just 400m from the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall), perfectly at home between the historic architectural monuments and modern art galleries that abound in this prestigious area.
Uzbekistan is featuring prominently on the travel itineraries of the culturally curious, and rightly so. But here, right in the heart of Paris just a few metres from the Louvre, La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan offers you a glimpse of the wonders of the Orient.
Entering the boutique, you pass between two exquisite wooden pillars. Hand-carved in Uzbekistan, these pillars are fashioned after the magnificent uprights that support the famous Juma prayer hall in Khiva (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) while on your right there is a cosy nook with a traditional low, carved table and soft cushions, ideal for sipping aromatic tea from the fine ceramic tea bowls on sale here.
This first hall, light and spacious with its bright lampshades attractively finished with ikat silk, is separated from the next by a neat brick wall featuring an unmistakably Oriental archway that leads to inner chambers displaying a tantalising range of Uzbek pieces, each dish, platter and tea-bowl more exquisite than the next. But before you move on to admire those treasures, pause a moment to take a look at the arch itself. Stunning blue tiles – each one lovingly hand-made in Uzbekistan – are set into the archway to create a mesmerising floral mosaic of rich blues and yellows reminiscent of the breath-taking tilework Central Asian architecture is so famous for.
A tasteful blend of ancient and modern, Oriental and European. La Maison de l’Ouzbékistan is so much more than a boutique. It’s the heart of the Silk Road in the heart of Paris.