Exclusive Stories

Treading softly between the ‘80s and the ‘20s

The hand-knotted rug and carpet trade is no stranger to the phrase “One of a Kind,” nor is it an industry short on personalities aptly described by the term. A new house collection debuting at Oscar Isberian Rugs in Chicago, Illinois, merges discrete and distinct personalities and a design aesthetic spanning literal decades; Rug Insider has the first look at this era-spanning one-of-a-kind collection.

Laurie Downing is no stranger to the world of rugs and carpets. So while her new firm Wool Song brings refreshing, colorful, and stylish hand-knotted carpets to the market, it does so with the knowledge and history of the craft and the industry. On first look, it’s a formula for success.

To attempt to describe the softness of alpaca is to nearly exhaust the dictionary of adjectives amounting to soft, luxurious, and the like. We first met Sumaq Alpaca in 2016 and for this “Made in the Amercas” issue of Rug Insider we venture both north to Canada where the firm is based, and south to Peru where its rugs are made, as we explore the remarkable fiber.

To talk rugs and carpets with Laura Parker is to enter into an atypical discussion encompassing far more than “Is the rug the right size?,” “Is it within budget?,” or “Can it be made with more orange in it?” In fact there is little typical about Laura Parker—particularly when it comes to rugs. Rug Insider set out to find out why.

A Look at an Iconic American Style: Distinctively American in its aesthetic, the classic braided rug endures at the hands of Capel Rugs.

In French the phrase ’s’il vous plaît’ translates literally as ‘if it pleases you;’ you are undoubtably quite familiar with its abbreviated English use on invitations—it is the S.V.P. in R.S.V.P. As a pun, plait as a noun is also a braid, or as a verb to braid, and from the perspective of ‘Made in the Americas’ nothing could be more pleasing to those with an eye for the traditional vernacular than a classic braided rug.

Noted Interior Designer Meredith Heron has been utilizing rugs and carpets in her interiors for years. Yet time and again she’s found herself unable to find the right product in stock or from a vendor offering the services and accountability she required. She did what any determined and creative business person would do, she started her own rug company catering to those precise needs and wants.

For almost a century the American firm Karastan has been providing the style and functionality demanded by American consumers. In examining their history and ethos, Rug Insider wonders what can be learned.

Industrialist Henry Ford has long been the recipient of accolades praising his creation of the assembly line and for innovating production in order to provide design within reach if you will, long before a certain current business co-opted the term. Bringing design within reach, or to the masses, is perhaps the single most praiseworthy effort any company can aspire to achieve.

A continued exploration of a new approach to rug making.

Purchasing a hand-knotted rug or carpet by first determining size, budget, and texture before even considering design or color seems antithetical to traditional rug sales models. In many ways it is. Yet, these same criteria have long been used to steer clients toward in-stock rug purchases. Ali Ghassemi considers these timeless questions as he embarks on redefining the craft of rug making for the modern consumer.