A father-daughter duo brings an ancient art form to Instagram

Sophie Javadi-Babreh grew up surrounded by carpets. They were so much a part of her life that she even refers to them as her brothers and sisters.

“It’s like … they’re colorful, the patterns and the touch of them. They were really enjoyable to be around,” she said.

Sophie and her brother, Hugo Javadi-Babreh, spent hours playing on them. The piles of rolled-up carpets made great jumping pads.

“We lived, danced and sometimes even slept on rugs,” Sophie recalled of her childhood.

Sophie’s father has owned Thames Carpets since 2001. Today, she’s using social media to spread the word about the business and the stories behind the carpets.

“In this business, you travel to source rugs quite often, and as a kid, that was cool because I got to constantly be around all these beautiful antiques and auction houses,” she said.

When she finished her studies in London, she decided to return to Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, where her family lives, to help grow her father’s business.

Before social media, her father learned about auctions and clients through printed catalogues and word-of-mouth. But Sophie saw an opportunity to expand the business to a wider, global audience.

Five years ago, she began posting about the carpets on Instagram, including information about their origin and designs.

In one video, she described how the rug was made by the Qashqai tribe in southwestern Iran. In another one, she told viewers about the handwoven rug made by the Kurdish Sanjabi tribe. It has “very sharp, diagonal designs, which they achieve with a unique weaving technique,” she pointed out.

“Whenever I talk about a rug now, I can look at where it was made and then it leads me down this rabbit hole of finding out about the culture of where it was made, what the symbols mean. They’re not just rugs. They carry huge references to cultural history,” she explained.

Sophie’s father, Bahram Javadi-Babreh, was born in a stable in a small village in northwestern Iran. He started weaving carpets when he was around 5 years old because his family needed the extra income, he said, and he hated it at the time.

“It was [a lot] of pressure,” Bahram explained, “because I was so small. I was one of the fastest weavers. The yarn used to cut through our hands.”

He used to weave very quickly, 60 knots per minute, he recalled, because if he didn’t finish the job in time, the people running the factory would sometimes punish the weavers.

Bahram, however, didn’t let the experience limit him. He learned to read and write on the side, during breaks and at night.

Once, a client commissioned him to weave a carpet with the design of the ancient Persian city of Persepolis. It was tough, but he was able to do it.

And the client was so impressed that he paid him handsomely. The money then helped him go to school full-time. Bahram eventually went to the UK to study engineering in the 1970s.

But his mind was still absorbed in the world of carpets. He would often try to get his hands on auction catalogues.

“I loved them,” he said, “absolutely loved them. I used to look at the pictures of them on the train and I used to miss my stop. Then I used to go back, and again miss it.”

Bahram was a weaver, but he also knew how to repair carpets. At one point, the original owner of Thames Carpets, Joseph Bernadout, who had founded the business in 1956, was desperately searching for someone to help fix a damaged rug during a cleaning process.

The cleaner had cut off the signature of the weaver and the owner was suing the business.

Luckily, they found Bahram, who was able to fix the problem. Bernadout brought Bahram into the business as a sign of appreciation and later handed over Thames Carpets to him.

Bahram’s talent in fixing carpets has taken him to some interesting places, like Princess Diana’s bedroom, where he fixed the Turkish rugs that needed repair — and the Duke of Wellington’s home.

He also restored the carpets at Windsor Castle after a fire in 1992 destroyed parts of the estate.

“I always say that I am the luckiest man in the world. Because the work I am doing takes me to different levels of people,” Bahram said.

Thames Carpets’ Instagram page now has about 84,000 followers. Sophie’s posts tell the history and the art of handmade carpets, but they also capture the bond between a father and daughter as they run a business together.

The 27-year-old said people from around the world have reached out to her after seeing her Instagram posts.

“I’ve had quite a lot of people that are a similar age to me saying that it’s helping them connect with their [own cultures] … [especially] if they have a Middle Eastern background but they were raised in a Western society, they’ve enjoyed learning more about that side of their heritage,” she said.

Social media has helped her turn a somewhat niche craft into one that is more accessible to people.

Each carpet tells a story of patience, culture and craftsmanship, she added, and she wants to share that with the world.