Ellie Montazeri is prone to making friends in random places and being open to new experiences. Originally from Iran, and raised in Los Angeles, Ellie has lived in New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Singapore.

She is keeping busy bringing a traditional Tunisian product to southern California (and beyond). Her company, Balthazar & Rose, is manufacturing and importing foutas. Pronounced “foo-tahs” (fouta is the Arabic word for “towel”), she first encountered these local specialties twelve years back when visiting Tunisia with the man she later married (a Franco-Tunisian). They wore their foutas as sarongs on their walk to the beach, and when they arrived at the beach, they relaxed on them. After going in the water, they dried off on them. Foutas are very absorbent, and get more absorbent with washing and use. Sand didn’t stick to them, they didn’t get heavy, they dried in about ten minutes in the sun, and when it was time to leave, they just flipped them over, brushed the sand off, and wore them right back to the house.

Ellie knows a good thing when she sees it, so she stocked up on foutas during her trips to visit Tunisia, and used them all the time, in various places, in various countries. And she discovered more and more uses for them. Foutas don’t take up much room in the linen closet the way terrycloth towels do. And terrycloth wasn’t practical at all in Singapore (it was much too humid) but foutas did nicely. They worked for baby blankets after she had kids, and were good for emergency diaper changes in the car. They made perfect picnic blankets and outdoor tablecloths. On a cold evening, they made convenient shawls and outdoor throws.

Eventually Ellie started Balthazar & Rose in Los Angeles, where she sells Aleppo soap, hand towels, handcrafted blankets and, of course, foutas.

Ellie calls these towels "beautiful, simple, and useful, and [from a tradition that's] 2,000 years old... They’ve been trending in Europe for several years and are now getting more popular in the United States. There is a beauty and genius in [their] simplicity and usefulness."

For more information about Balthazar & Rose, please click here.

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Ellie Montazeri & Balthazar & Rose