 Floor Focus - February 2008  |
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For Mixed Company
A montage of floor beauties blurs traditional definitions of the rug genre The overflow of colors, patterns and styles challenge customary labels for floor fashions. Graphic palettes paired with textural slates appear modern. Add damask prints to the mix and it can also be transitional. Watch how modern transforms old-age Oriental motifs or traditional Oushaks play with contemporary colors. Many pieces exist as chameleons. So one need not permanently assign a rug to or define it solely by its market category. Define it instead by characteristics. Color Mania Palettes tread down a more contemporary turf this season in all rug sectors. French manufacturer Tabula Tua adopts deep vermillion tones to its Le Monde Vegetal Tip Top Collection. Accenting a stark, white velour cotton ground, the clean layout exudes an ultra-modern look. Home Comfort Peacock Shags respond to color in playful neon shades. Pink Tourmaline’s meld of cheery pink and white glitters attracts the tweener girl in search of a charming bedside floor accessory. Chocolate remains a strong and sweet staple color. Surya’s Gramercy line pairs the trendy chocolate with a cinnamon pink shade. Textured and carved in a modern take on floral, Gramercy wears the scheme serenely. The Navona Collection by Kas tags its chocolate colorway Espresso Fiore, a light and soft nuance of the mocha family. Paired with a subdued sage, Navona’s stylized swirl pattern adds momentum to the color combo. Deeper greens appear after sage like Chandra’s forest green in its Fenja line. Pops of mustard highlight a willowy tree silhouette for an almost retro-modern effect. American and Indian art inspires the dyeing techniques and color depth of 828 International’s Water Colors Collection. Each piece literally translates brushstrokes of warm paprika, gold and green tones on hand-tufted premium wool. Strong influences of Indian jewelry take root in Odegard’s Mughal Jewelry line. Odegard marries cultural beauty to a contemporary canvas that structures actual jewel patterns in the Navaratna design. The rustic brown, maroon and tinted olive palette suggests a shimmer and glow of what appears to be rubies and yellow sapphire gems.
Coupling gray with brown tends to challenge the neutral landscape. Jaipur’s J2 Collection follows the current gray fashion in apparel and sports a weathered gray and brown look. The gradient tones of gray blend softly with hidden accents of sage and mild paprika along a viny floral design. Design Reaction The market remains faithful to classic Tibetan styles, Oushaks and Mahal patterns this winter. Intricate carving featured in Spring Bouquet, a pattern from Inner Asia’s Floral Bouquet Collection hearkens back to the traditional luxury of heirlooms. The knotted Tibetan wool resembles an old-age medallion structure that blooms into a bouquet of orange, ruby and icy blue accents atop a blue-gray slate. Ziegler Mahal patterns define the Gem Collection by Shalom Brothers Inc. Design 134 reflects a classic Indian Mahal in the framework of tan and chocolate. Harounian Rugs’ Mahal Collection consists of antique replicas of Indian rug styles that capture the luxury of the tradition. Mahal weaves in current high fashion colors of camel, red and chocolate, putting a twist on the ancient scale. Aubusson and Savonnerie area rugs resurface this season with a stronger emphasis on opulence. Peel & Company reincarnates the exquisite history of the Palace of Versailles in its latest line of aubussons and savonneries. Partnered with the Versailles Foundation, Peel & Company carries the Court of Versailles brand on its line. Each piece interprets different historical collections with an upgrade in color and scale for today’s buyer. Feizy Rugs opts to interpret the styles of Far Eastern cultures. Its Qi Collection frames a butterfly and dragon Asian motif within sinuous florals. Bold shades of gold, red and pops of black create a balance between the traditional and transitional. The more contemporary edgy designs from gurus such as Momeni and Liora Manné, break current definitions of modern. Design EL-25 from Momeni’s Elements Collection embodies varying patterns in a collage style setting. Individually pieced squares of stripes, skins and circles work collectively to engage the viewer in a visual experience of light-to-dark color fields.
The tie-dye apparel fad of the ’60s makes a comeback in Liora Manné’s Ravella Collection for Trans Ocean. Ravella’s contemporary puzzle patchwork transforms customary geometric shapes into a busy, bustling piece resembling street traffic. The multicolored Tie Dye rug design fashions light mocha, slate, rust and yellow earth tones—bold enough for indoors and outdoors. Touch-Me Textures Shags, skins and leather bound floor pieces tease the buyer in search of weight and unusual touch. Luxurious hides, for example, grow more attractive each season. The Argentinean goatskin rug from ABC Carpet’s Emeline Collection softens the look of animal skin in a beige and deep chocolate palette. Durable and supple, Emeline masters opulent luxury without ever being gaudy. Jungle themes of Safari felines and zebras act out in the Urban Chic Collection from Balta U.S. The Traveler design twists the traditional prints with a less literal approach. Balta borders the crackled crocodile skin prints of Traveler with zebra zig-zag stripes. It employs a visual and physical texture in an allover brown and beige color scheme. Karastan and Dynamic Rugs take a similar avenue to texture. Trade Winds from Karastan’s Studio by Karastan Artworks Collection exhibits a raised texture. Its long-stemmed botanical silhouette rises above its striated wool silver green ground for extreme visual and literal depth. The Eclipse rug from Dynamic takes a more abstract approach to the flow of lines. The look results in an abstract geometry of lines that pop out and curve into sun-washed cream, blue and chocolate tones. Foreign Accents’ Chelsea Collection styles with several fabrics. Viscose, suede, leather shag and wool felt shape the textural definition of the line. Its River Stone rug adopts a rocky-like dimension of hand-tufted New Zealand wool with loop accents. The expanded Marrakech Collection from Safavieh interprets the Moorish-inspired mosaic tiles of Spain. The line includes geometric motifs, hand-knotted of vegetable-dyed wool. The distressed square motifs remain lush looking and rich in gradations of red, beige and brown. Nourison prefers subtlety in the textures of its Calvin Klein Home Organic Weave line. The Pulse design, made from vegetable-dyed wool, takes on a kinetic energy of curvy lines grounded on a cotton back. The lines appear to interlock with pebbles and literally ‘pulse’ and jump out of the rug. Resources
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