Forget the walls, lay down some art on your floor with Tarun Tahiliani's luxury rugs as he collaborates with a carpet maker brand. By Unnati Joshi
We all have admired his designs, his gowns and lehengas and now we can resurrect the pattern for our floor. Tarun Tahiliani has joined a growing list of fashion designers translating their passion for fashion design to floor coverings.
“It’s new, it’s modern and super luxury but it has the character of 100 years, like an old soul in the new body. look at the one behind you; I think it’s gorgeous. I haven’t seen carpets like these all over the world,” said the couturier, pointing the laser light towards a carpet as we sat down for the conversation.
Fashion comes into the home in many different ways, whether it’s in the form of a new tassled throw or an eccentric cushion, but there’s no place where fashion can play quite as effectively as on the floor. With an aim to take Indian designs to the world, Tarun has collaborated with a premium rug maker brand.
Talking about the new line he told us, “There are three collections. The first collection is called Antique Frames and is based on the borders painted in the most elaborate refinement, on the periphery of the most Indian, Mughal miniature paintings. Each carpet encapsulates the mood and is finished with a distressed look to reflect the patina of that era. The colour palette celebrates lively tones like Indian reds, burgundies and rusts. The second segment glorifies the traditional embroidery art of chikankari. The blocks have been sourced from the cornices of the local architecture and have jaals and vines from the Persian gardens. While the canvases painted by me inspired the third collection. We worked with techniques and swatches. Also I want to mention in particular their (Obeetee’s) designer Anu Gupta and my designer Charuta Phalke who kept driving this project.”
A good designer can transcend from the realm they are focused on into another and do it very successfully.
Explaining his design philosophy he said, “longevity, classicism with a twist, bruited in India but contemporary, just like you and me. We are Indians but we are not sitting here wearing a dhoti. There are many facets of India and I think a thing of beauty is a joy forever. I am not into this shocking bling and stuff trying to be ethnic. I get my inspiration from the same source that I work with in fashion. It’s all photographs, museums, it’s the way people drape fabrics, and it’s the techniques. You keep experimenting and then your eye leads to the way. You have a colour palette in the beginning and then you work on the mood board and then you start and take it forward.”
For the first time fine zari threads were woven into rugs to render a metallic luster. Classic Indian motifs like Kairi bootis and stylised floral patterns like lotus and rose, have been extensively used to add significant details.
Elaborating on the production process, Rudra Chaterjee, chairman, Obeetee said, “It takes about 18 months to make one carpet. The customer just didn’t have time for it, which meant that the weavers had to dump down their skills and make the products faster, which we never want. We met Tarun accidently and hit upon the idea that all these carpets were designed based on the Turkish or Persian motif sometimes attracting Western audience. We wanted to do it for India with the Indian motif.
“The journey of a hand-knotted carpet like these starts with the selection of the yarn based on what is sustainable. And then we determine a design. It is almost like a canvas. So if the design is very intricate you need a high knotted carpet, if the design is open, don’t do a high knotted carpet. Then we weave it using silk, wool or linen. There are many different fibers including zari, that has never been done in the carpet. And then after that there is finishing.”
There is a lot of thought and care that goes in the making of a rug. The designer told us that he makes sure to review a design 15 times before sending it for the production.
“I review them for atleast 15 times. We go to the factory and then they keep sending the swatches and we keep working on it.
You know when I am seeing them lit like this, I am loving the chikankari, it was flat for me in the studio. I love the abstract painting, I am in love with them all,” Tarun concluded.
Photo: Pankaj Kumar