One distinctive form, two lives — a weighted object for the room, a bag for the hand. Each one of one.

A practical annoyance becomes an idea 

In the summer of 2021, the wind blew through Jared Ungar’s London apartment as doors slammed and papers took flight. Searching for a doorstop to match his considered interior, he found nothing he wanted to live with. Why, he wondered, were all doorstops so visually apologetic? It was a category that nobody had bothered to make beautiful.

A practical annoyance gave rise to a product idea: a weighted design piece that could hold a door open as well as hold its own in a stylish space. 

SALABIM is born

After 8 years living abroad, immersing himself in international design trends and the world of luxury hospitality, Jared returned to South Africa, merging his global insights with his African heritage. There, he reached out to long-time family friend and interior design icon Stephen Falcke, who helped him navigate the leap from idea to manufacture. 

At their first meeting, Jared and Stephen unpacked the idea together — its form, materials and possibilities. SALABIM was born on that day. Its first product would be a weighted design piece made from salvaged handwoven textiles, taking the form of a pyramid: sturdy and self-possessed.

The name SALABIM recalls the conjurer’s catchphrase “sim SALABIM”, and a boyhood spent reveling in magic tricks. For Jared, the childhood thrill of conjuring something from nothing has become the fabric of his business, with overlooked materials manifesting as singular design objects. 

The next move was to the furniture manufacturer Stephen had worked with for 40 years, where Peruvian handwoven wool offcuts destined for disposal were transformed into limited-edition weighted pyramids.

Softness finds form

For six months, Jared worked closely with the factory’s senior designer, learning the complexities of fabric production as they refined the form. Because the doorstops travel overseas unfilled, the pyramid had to hold its own shape without relying on the filling. 

Together, they developed a system of hidden support layers that allow the soft handwoven panels to hold their form. Now, the customer receives a standalone sculptural object, rather than a shapeless bag of cloth.

Reclaiming textiles and giving them a second life felt akin to magic: the conjuring of a new form. And then there was the authenticity of cloth woven by hand, each piece communicating its character through natural dye colours and motifs.

Four panels; no exact repeat 

For Jared, the journey from castaway cloth to a collectible design piece became an act of composition. With a sharp eye for design details, he selects each offcut, specifies the leather handles, traces the most expressive crop and decides which of the four panels will bear the SALABIM plaque. And because handwoven textiles don’t repeat, the crop is unique to every pyramid. To mark their inimitability, each design is laser engraved with a serial number. 

As the journey evolved, Jared moved production from Johannesburg to Cape Town, where both the market and manufacturer aligned more closely with SALABIM. At Aafrica and the Mount Nelson, customers began asking the same question: could they carry it as a handbag? Before long, the pyramid moved from the room to the hand. Reimagined as an elevated handbag, it retained the distinctive form of the weighted piece. One pyramid, two very different lives.

Material journeys

SALABIM’s magic is rooted in the provenance of its materials. In 2025, Jared travelled to the hill towns of Peru to meet with the artisans behind SALABIM’s handwoven cloth. The method is deeply rooted in cultural tradition. Sheep’s wool is spun into yarn, naturally dyed and woven by hand, incorporating motifs drawn from Peru’s flora and fauna. It’s this slow and deeply human way of making that lends richness and authenticity to SALABIM’s textiles. In the Andes, these textiles are traditionally worn over the shoulders during winter before finding a second life as upholstery or carpeting cloth. 

In early 2026, Jared met Lezanne Viviers of the Johannesburg atelier VIVIERS. Soon afterwards, she invited him to create a work for the atelier’s Investec Cape Town Art Fair exhibition. He had just ten days and one requirement: the design had to use raw materials from the Karoo. Long associated with South Africa’s wool, mohair and ostrich industries, the region offered a natural material vocabulary for the piece.

That brief gave rise to SALABIM introducing a couture piece pairing mohair with ostrich leather. A few months later, at RMB Latitudes, Jared launched the pyramid handbag collection with handwoven wool and mohair iterations.

More than a doorstop 

Each SALABIM weighted object is a finely crafted art piece. Both functional and sculptural, it can live on the floor, preventing doors from slamming, or on a coffee table beside a stack of Assouline books and a Diptyque candle. It’s in this meeting of purpose and presence that SALABIM finds the magic of holding space.

The handbag translates the pyramid’s geometry into an object with a construction entirely its own. Light yet robust, its ostrich shin leather handle lends warmth in the palm. 

SALABIM’s ambition is to reimagine humble, useful objects as collectible design pieces—for the home or the hand. Each becomes a one-of-one meeting of form, cloth and character—made to hold a door, hold a room, or carry the story elsewhere.