May 8 2012
Day two of the shoot, and everyone is up early to make the most of the glorious desert light.
A bird looks on with a mocking eye as it takes 5 people to unload the enormous Damascus Grey.
The uninterrupted clear blue sky and sandy dunes have inspired the team, and they persevere deeper into the desert to create the final shot.
Before catching the plane home, a quick trip to the nearby bazaar to discover the local craftsmen and their wares.
Look out for the final shots in the Studio Collection brochure, out soon…
May 4 2012
When the time came to find a shoot location for our new Studio Collection, Suzanne Sharp and the team were helplessly drawn back to the exotic roots of our beautiful rugs.
And so they journeyed to a distant desert for the shoot, allowing the bright colours, simple geometric patterns and soft textures of the rugs to shine against the modestly beautiful backdrop.
Exploring the location, a myriad of arched corridors, secret courtyards, quiet corners and shaded alcoves.
Creating a beautiful shot involves painstaking attention to detail and a lot of hard work.
Apr 20 2012
Housed in a former tie factory spazio Rossana Orlandi continues to present beautifully curated new and original design.
The Beetley collection by London company Sé.
The Crystal Bala hollow table is a new twist for the Sé Bala collection.
The Crate Collection by Garth Roberts for Antique Mirror.
As well as instigating a new hub for design and living called MOST in the breathtaking Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia , Tom Dixon‘s energy never waivers and he managed to design an enchanting labyrinth of lights, with a Gelato stop mid-way for weary design pilgrims.
His new Etch Light Web Copper bobbed ethereally in a white room.
Fin lights by Tom Dixon in a hall of mirrors.
As if that weren’t enough, has also launched a line of accessories called Eclectic by Tom Dixon , featuring everyday objects like these beautiful bashed copper bowls.
New on the scene is New Zealand design company Resident.
Their Oud Lamp by Nat Cheshire is particularly striking.
Wallpaper* Magazine launched its third Handmade exhibition at the Brioni headquarters, celebrating craftsmanship with lovingly made collaborations by some of the world’s best designers.
A Louis Vuitton tent at Wallpaper* Handmade.
Sew Your Own stationery by Michael Nash + Sion and Fedrigioni.
A ‘live’ painting by Dutch artists Gijs Fielding and Job Wouters that was painted during the show.
Chocolate by Marou and Rice Creative.
Wrapping and printed notebooks by Postalco.
Apr 19 2012
We are in Milan, where the future of design takes over the old Italian city for one week every year.
Here are some of our design highlights from the 2012 Salone del Mobile.
Paris concept store Merci has packed its suitcases and set up a temporary space in Zona Tortona filled with new products and vintage pieces.
Continuing the French theme, a collective of leading designers calling themselves France Design display some of the new up and coming designers graduating from the country. Here is Ich&Kar‘s fresco that wrapped around the room like a cabinet of curiosities of graphics and design.
Jaime Hayon created a typically exuberant Hayon world in Lambrate.
A golden penguin, the latest addition to his zoo, surveys the installation
One of Hayon’s sketches.
Zaha Hadid and Citco created an etherial secret garden consisting of humble woven huts that housed glistening crystal palaces.
London firm Established & Son’s new Dame lights by Luca Nichetto.
Modular design by Camille Flammarion at Paradise, an exhibition of recent graduates by London’s Royal College of Art.
More precious objects by Ya-Wen Chou at the RCA.
Dec 19 2011
If you have cunningly booked a window seat and you are flying into Moscow at the beginning of December, you can be fairly sure you’re going to see vast tracts of desolate forest heaving with the whitest, cleanest snow. And, as you sit strapped to your seat praying that you’ll clear the last tree, you’ll feel uplifted, full of the joys of Santa, elves and wicked queens. But then later, as you crawl into town through snow that’s turned into chocolate sorbet, the impossible volume of traffic ensuring that you’re late for drinks, the Christmas spirit will require vodka fuel to reignite. This is not a problem here – vodka is more plentiful than water.
This December there was no snow. Apparently, Russia will become the vegetable patch for the world. As Siberia warms and its snow evaporates and in England we grow mangos and everywhere south of us is a colossal beach, that place you don’t want to be sent to will become wonderfully temperate and pleasant. And when you hear that someone is being packed off to Siberia you’ll think ‘lucky bugger.’
I was in Moscow with Trino (from McQueen) for a party to showcase the Alexander McQueen rug collection. I’m often somewhere for a party. It’s not a terrible job. After four years of talking, designing, dyeing, weaving and sampling (and then dyeing, weaving and sampling all over again until we got something we collectively agreed was extraordinary), the collection of six rugs and four cushions is finally ready to be purchased by those who understand that these are truly the finest, most tactile and handsome rugs to be found anywhere in the world.
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Nov 4 2011
Back in 1990 when Christopher and Suzanne Sharp were contemplating a life as proprietors of the chicest Hotel in the Tuscan countryside, bad weather, a broken boiler, and dodgy estate agents sent them packing south to Malta to seek refuge with Suzanne’s family.
They stayed on the island for seven years, expanded their family and set up a shop selling oriental rugs. Eventually they sold up and moved to London in 1997 to establish The Rug Company, with their unique idea of bringing together the ancient craft of rug making with innovative contemporary design.
14 years and 18 shops later, the Sharps have returned to Suzanne’s homeland to open The Rug Company’s long-awaited showroom in Malta.
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Oct 21 2011
I was in Mexico City last week with The Rug Company’s founder and CEO, Christopher Sharp, to celebrate the reopening of our stunning new showroom which has relocated to brand new building in Alejandro Dumas – one of the loveliest streets in Polanco.
It was an auspicious week for us to throw open the doors again, as the City was abuzz with excitement about the opening of Design Week Mexico 2011, which officially kicked off yesterday with the opening of Design House in Chapultepec. Design House is a showcase for the Country’s top interior architects, each of whom have designed a room within a large 1950′s house in a leafy area of the City. Keen observers will spot a number of our rugs throughout the house, but it would be impossible to miss the colourful Paul Smith and Alice Temperley cushions in the vibrant courtyard café – designed by Jorge Medina and Germán Velasco of Muro Rojo Architectura.
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Sep 9 2011
Three members of the The Rug Company team joined Caroline Kent, the Company’s Production Manager, in Nepal recently to meet the spinners, weavers, washers, and finishers and follow the incredible journey that each and every hand-knotted rug takes as raw Tibetan wool is gradually turned into a stunning work of art over a period of many months.
Emma Ellis-Hill, showroom manager at Holland Park tries her hand at washing a large Spectrum rug. It’s extremely hard work!
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Aug 22 2011
Always on the hunt for forward-thinking flooring designs, we were intrigued to come across ‘We Make Carpets’, who reinterpret the great tradition of rug-making with a surprising contemporary twist.
The group is founded by three designers from the Netherlands: Bob Waardenburg, Marcia Nolte and Stijn van der Vleuten , who together create some extraordinary carpets from the most ordinary of objects.
Using humble everyday items such as clothes pegs, plastic forks, paperclips, toy soldiers, pasta, bricks and balloons, they cleverly and painstakingly rearrange them to create large graphic rugs.
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Aug 16 2011
How many people does it take to lift a giant hand-knotted mohair rug?
