Colors: Orange Color

In the Winter 2022 issue of RUG INSIDER Magazine, one of the questions explored is that of the New Traditionals, as the question is asked, are today’s buyers sticking with Modern designs and colors, or are they returning to more Traditional styles?

For many years, the trend in the area rug trade has been to move away from Classic Traditional Designs, with their bolder colors, centralized stylistic elements, and busy fields, and to move toward more Modern designs, which tend to be characterized by softer, more subdued colors, and decentralized, uncluttered designs, often taking an Abstract form.

PLAY BALL! (or tennis or golf or go cycling…) With outdoor sports and the Paris Olympics on millions of minds around the world this summer, it is no accident that Kalaty also has sports in mind as the company brings exciting new additions to its highly energetic artist-designed SPORTSGLYPHS rug collection at the summer Las Vegas market. 

Antique Persian Lavar, Kerman-Shah & Kerman Rugs

There are endless debates among vendors, collectors and enthusiasts of vintage and antique rugs as to which of these styles is the best. We have discussed in previous issues the differences in the fineness of the weave of a rug, with some defining fineness based on weave density, others defining it based on intricacy of design, and yet others defining based on the unique artistry of a given carpet. Thus, there are many different opinions as to which antique rug style can definitively be called the finest.

out·spo·ken  /ˌoutˈspōkən/
direct and open in speech or expression

Launched in April 2020, the inspirational hair-on-hide artistic rugs of Be OUTSPOKEN gained fast recognition—garnering five coveted home decor awards. This fall in High Point, the company will debut a special edition monochromatic series for its CHOOSE TO SHINE signature art design. Gold hues to warm light browns were created in custom pigments specifically for the colorway of the hide.

When we talk about area rugs, whether new reproduction rugs or the antique originals on which they are based, one of the most common ways of categorizing them is by their level of fineness.

Specifically, the fineness we refer to is the fineness of weave density, with the finest rugs being those with the tightest weave density. In the West, we often express this level of weave density in terms of KPSI, or knots per square inch. In the East, the more traditional expression is in terms of RAJ, or knots per 7 centimeters. The higher the KPSI or RAJ, the finer the rug.

One day, a New York creative director landed in the middle of Mexico, picked up a brush and a can of black house paint and, for the first time in her life, started to paint floor to ceiling. Hello, Black Line Crazy!

A lifelong doodler, Mary van de Wiel, aka Van discovered that those damned doodles refused to be doodles anymore. Twenty-one months and two successful exhibitions later in Australia and Mexico, van de Wiel reinterpreted her black- and-whiteabstract work across a limited edition collection of accessories, fashion, fabrics, furniture and more.

The Eastern Carpet Long Beloved By the West

Within the wide world of oriental rugs, one could rightly say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as each person has their own criteria as to what makes one type of rug more beautiful or desirable than another.

Is a rug’s beauty defined by the intricacy of its design, with the most intricate designs being the best? By the fineness of its weave, with the finest weave being the best? By the richness of its color palette, with the brightest and most colorful being the best?

The flashing backlit floors of the disco provided the inspiration for Collection 54 by Jan Kath. Light flashing off glittering mirror balls becomes contemporary rug art. Four patterns of fine lines are arranged to create interlocking grids that seem to vibrate and shine. Metallics and gem tones shimmer with shades of copper, gunmetal, silver, gold and emerald.