Luxury rugs were on the must-see lists of designers and consumers attending the Architectural Digest Design Show, March 17-20, at Piers 92 and 94 in New York City. |
NEW YORK -- The 15th edition of the Architectural Digest Design Show proved a powerhouse of luxe design with more than 13 rug vendors showcasing their latest designs.
Designers and consumers were treated to a look at tried and true upscale brands such as Creative Touch, French Accents, Jan Kath, Kalaty (via showroom East End Interiors), Lavender Oriental, Marc Phillips, Nasiri, New England Collection, Nourison, Orley Shabahang, Tibet Home, Tibetano, Safavieh, Woven Concepts and Woven Legends.
Attendees were also exposed to young, contemporary brands such as Aelfie, Avo, Castelluxe, Cold Picnic and Eskayel, a U.S. debut of Limited Editions carpet and rugs from Belgium, and a $30,000-plus Damien Hirst limited-edition rug from the artist's Other Criteria gallery. The offerings presented by rug exhibitors included everything from geometric patterned cow hides to exceptional antique and new Persian designs, to contemporary flat-woven tribals and high-low Moroccans--along with everything in between.
Some 40,000 attendees crowded the aisles this year, with a 15 percent increase in trade over 2015, according to show organizers. Held at New York City's West Side Piers 92 and 94, the AD event brought together 420 brands including kitchen appliance makers, home furnishings brands, artisan crafts and more.
AELFIE
Aelfie reworks tribal flatweave rugs in a range of fresh colors for contemporary audiences.
Brooklyn-based rug and home textiles brand Aelfie debuted at the Arch Digest show in its curated Made section, introducing attendees to its reworked flat-woven tribal rugs in a range of fresh colorways. The studio recently expanded its offering to include a range of all-cotton bathmats, made in India, in a palette of fashionable color schemes.
AVO
Avo's Brit Kleinman walks a show attendee through her collection of hand-painted cowhide rugs and pillows.
Founded two years ago, Brit Kleinman's Brooklyn design studio Avo returns to the Architectural Digest show's curated gallery-like Made section. Avo's flagship Painted Plains collection of hand-painted cowhide rugs and pillows play with the juxtaposition between material, shape and pattern.
CASTELLUXE
Castelluxe founders Ariella and Leon Deutsch debut a range of hand-knotted designs (shown).
The young New York brand Castelluxe has grown its rug assortment to now include hand-knotted rugs. The company launched a couple years ago with a selection of vibrant geometric patterned cow-hide rugs and pillows and thought the time was right to expand its brand to include a selection of contemporary transitional hand-knotted rugs.
CREATIVE TOUCH
Creative Touch's Baki Ildiz returns to the AD show with a range of contemporary and transitional designs.
Creative Touch returns to the Architectural Digest Home Design Show 2016 and offers attendees a look at its newest additions to a range of collections, including the Modern Wool and Silk collection and Bamboo Silk Fine.
FRENCH ACCENTS
Danny Shafiian of French Accents Rugs highlights the broad assortment of the brand's transitional designs, ranging from Highlands plaid to flatweave Khotans.
French Accents Rugs displays feminine shades of color along with texture at the AD Design Show. The New York showroom showcased everything from muted flatweaves, in lavenders, pinks and blues to high-low geometrics in earthy tones of beige and brown.
New samples by French Accents Rugs feature fresh colorways from feminine pinks and lavenders to cooler shades of blues, and a mix of both.
JAN KATH
Kyle Clarkson, a partner of the Jan Kath New York showroom Kyle & Kath, returns to the AD event with the company's new cushions and award-winning rugs.
"This has the best energy of all the shows we have participated in," said Kyle Clarkson, who heads the German-design atelier's New York showroom. Returning to AD for a second time, Jan Kath brought its award-winning Spacecrafted collection, new soft furniture pieces, and brand new designs from its popular Erased Heritage collection.
Jan Kath's large AD booth gives its designs space to shine.
KALATY
East End Interiors, a Long-Island based to the trade showroom, offers shoppers a peek at Kalaty's contemporary rugs.
East End Interiors, which carries Kalaty rugs in its to-the-trade showroom, offered show shoppers a display of Kalaty's contemporary and transitional designs, including a tone on tone rug collections called Echo (shown above, bottom right on display) handcrafted in a Lori-Loom weave from wool, and Avalon, a loop-and-pile range handmade in the same weave in wool and Silkette.
Kalaty's Avalon loop-and-pile collection features various multi-level motifs crafted in a Lori-Loom weave of wool and Silkette.
LAVENDER ORIENTAL
Founder of Lavender Oriental, Lida Lavender showcases a range of antique, vintage and new rugs at the AD Design Show.
Returning to the AD design event, Lavender Oriental's Lida Lavender showcases a stunning antique Tabriz, above left, alongside the company's contemporary range. Displaying contemporary rugs on a wall rack, Lavender hung the Tabriz adjacent to them to offer a choice of old and new. "The idea is to mix and match the new with the antique," she told RugNews.com, noting that the company has grown its assortment of contemporary rugs from a collection of Oushaks to include Moroccans and more recently bamboo silk designs.
MARC PHILLIPS
Mark Partial, a partner of D&D-based Marc Phillips Decorative Rugs, plays up textures and an earthy palette for East Coast designers.
"Last year we featured the Artistry collection," said Marc Partial, a partner of the Marc Phillips rug atelier, with showrooms in New York and Los Angeles. "But this year we selected more textures, and a more natural look." The company showed off a range of jutes, high-low textured Moroccans and some vintage, distressed Orientals.
NASIRI
Nasiri's Nader Nasiri stands in front of a beach-worthy Pelas vintage flat-weave collection rug.
New York-based Nasiri returns to the AD Design Show for the fifth time with a fresh selection of Mazandaran flatweaves, including design number 4797, a Persian hand-woven carpet crafted of hand-spun wool and vegetable dyes. "It is a new design in our collection that is completely customizable," said Nader Nasiri, owner.
NEW ENGLAND COLLECTION
NEC's Renata Stredl-Fishman meets with existing clients and new designers at the AD expo.
In its seventh year as an exhibitor at the AD event, the New England Collection brings fresh designs to existing collections, such as its hooked and needlepoint rugs, said NEC's Renata Stredl-Fishman. "Our existing designers come by to see us at the show, but there are always some new clients coming too. The new designs we selected for the show were chosen for their color, texture or design, which we expect to be interesting to our designer clients."
New designs include a cotton and jute hooked rug (1120J), created in Central America; an all-wool coarse weave needlepoint in abstract, geometric pattern (2072) made in China; a cotton and wool hooked rug (1175C) in varying size hooks (a new and unique technique) for added depth made in Central America; and SC-25, a wool and silk Swedish flatweave rug, produced in China.
NOURISON
Nourison's Kim Weling and Giovanni Marra show off designs from the company's luxury Luminance and Twilight collections at the AD show.
Nourison, which brings its higher-end rugs for the AD audience, was invited to create a vignette for the much-anticipated DIFFA Dining by Design showcase, co-located with the AD Design Show (read full story). For the main event, however, the rug manufacturer presented a range of its best sellers, such as Twilight, Luminance, Prairie, Silk Shadows and Gradient by Calvin Klein Home.
Nourison also displayed its best-selling Manhattan and Starlight broadloom collections, custom designed area rugs and the Fifty to Infinity program, which offers 50 sizes and shapes to choose from for including scatters, room size, oversized mansion rugs, runners, squares, rounds and octagons. Decorative pillows were a big draw with designers and consumers attending the show, a repeat of the line's successful appearance at last year's Arch Digest event.
ORLEY SHABAHANG
Rugs from the new Animal and Mosaic collections were among the showstoppers at Orley Shabahang booth at the 2016 AD Design Show.
"We first started doing the Architectural Digest Design Show in 2007, though we haven't done it consecutively every year since then," said Bahram Shabahang, creative director and co-founder of the exclusive brand. "We look forward to the AD Design Show because over the years we have met so many great customers and especially designers that make a point of coming every year; it's always great to catch up with old friends and make new ones."
Orley Shabahang presented a number of pieces from its recently released Animal collection and also its Mosaic range, as well as some of the company's more abstract and architectural designs.
REVITARUGS
Hamid Zarei and his daughter Pardis demonstrate their latest anti-allergy and anti-microbial technology at the AD Design Show, as a rug restoration expert from RevitaRUGS demonstrates repair to a damaged carpet.
Rug renovation and cleaning specialist RevitaRUGS, which recently unveiled a cutting-edge stain protection system, introduced audiences to its latest innovation, an anti-microbial, anti-allergy and anti-dust mite nano coating process. (Read full story.)
The company offered AD show shoppers a pair of Nano Coated Socks, which they were encouraged to wear to a tough gym work out and then seal in a plastic baggie. Once removed, the socks are said to remain odor free. RevitaRUGS also had one of its restoration experts at the show demonstrating how the company painstakingly repairs damages to rugs.
SAFAVIEH
John Vlahopoulos and Karen Krinsky of Safavieh show off the New York company's broad assortment of furnishings.
Safavieh presented a broad assortment of home furnishings at the AD event, showing off its contemporary, fashionable total home decor. From upholstery to tables to pillows and rugs, the company offered a coordinated lifestyle approach to show shoppers.
A detail of Safavieh's Luxor collection rug on display in Boho chic colors. Luxor rugs are hand knotted of banana silk in the classic Egyptian weave.
TIBET HOME
Yeshi Doma of New York-based Tibet Home debuts at the AD event with a selection of handmade products including masterfully crafted area rugs.
At her Architectural Digest Design Show booth, first-time exhibitor Yeshi Doma said she wants to preserve the ancient weaving traditions of Tibet, but to also give them a modern twist for today's luxury consumer. Offering a range of hand-knotted Tibetan rugs and handmade pillows, the young brand is based in New York City. Among Tibet Home's show stoppers were a series of art pillows in sets of three or four that together represent animals common in Asian lore such as the dragon or tiger.
TIBETANO 
Tibetano principal Shahran Nazar greeted returning and new designers at the AD expo with new and expanded collections.
"We've been doing the show since 2008," Tibetano's Rebecca Nazar told RugNews.com. "It has been a great show for us consistently, and has a nice mix of designers and high-end consumers."
The company showcased its latest updated, in-stock Moroccans, new Scandinavian styled flat-weaves, along with an assortment of hand-woven jute designs, including Tome, Bluff and Brace.
WARP & WEFT
Michael Mandapati, owner of Warp & Weft, made a last minute decision to exhibit and says the move was a good one.
Telling RugNews.com that AD was great in terms of traffic, Warp & Weft owner Michael Mandapati showcased new designs for existing customers and looked forward to presenting the collection to new designers and consumers. "I really think it is good for us: the business has changed so much. You have to be in front of your customers, so if they are walking a show you have to have a presence." Warp & Weft presented its newest contemporary collections of Indian and Nepalese hand-knotted rugs.
WOVEN CONCEPTS
Behrooz Hakimian showed off his Best in Flooring award presented by IFDA at the Architectural Digest Design Show for Woven Concepts' Odyssey collection.
Woven Concepts returned to the designer focused AD Design Show with its new Odyssey collection which features three-dimensional and multi-textural effects. The company was named Best in Flooring at the show by IFDA, for the made-in-India collection, offered in eight designs and 10 colorways. The boutique, hand-made rug purveyor makes sure it leaves a green carbon imprint with the creation of each rug. (Read full story.)
WOVEN LEGENDS
Sonam Choki (left) of ABC Carpet and Home gives vendor Woven Legends' Neslihan Jevremovic a hand.
Philadelphia-based Woven Legends, which is represented in New York City at iconic retailer ABC Carpet and Home, stood out among other rug participants with its offering of traditionally crafted hand-made rugs featuring iconic Oriental motifs. The company was recognized in 2015 with several awards for its Anka Project in which Syrian women living in refugee camps in Turkey are taught to weave and employed to create rugs for its Heriz and Uskudar collections, as well as its popular Fish rugs. (Read full story.)
Editor's Note: In case you missed RugNews.com's preview of rugs featured at the show, including Madeline Weinrib's Lilac Otto flatweave design at Benjamin Moore, click here.