Carpet designer Rashi Bajaj spoke to Iknoor Kaur about using embellishments such as Swarovski crystals and wood in her designs
Rashi Bajaj had, what one calls, a sorted life — graduation from lady Sri Ram, MBA from Symbiosis and a comfortable job at Infosys. However, sometimes, one decides to follow a new path for creative satisfaction. Thus, after serving the company for a year, she chose to start something on her own. Today she calls herself the first lady entrepreneur in the country to have ventured into the cottage industry with her brand Carpet Couture by Rashi.
Coming from a family that was in the carpet export business, it could have been simple for the young entrepreneur, but she chose to go the other way. “My dad’s firm designed and manufactured rugs for premium stores in Europe and US. While joining family business was easy, it never appealed to me and taking a franchise of a European designer didn’t make sense to me either as I knew the ground reality, importing rugs back meant cheating Indian customers by charging 10 times for something which is very much made in India. This is when I decided to launch my store, featuring my designs, embellished by rural women, offering customised Indian contemporary handmade rugs to customers,” she shared.
“I try not to restrict my designs. I draw inspiration from life in general. I like to use neutral colours and blend abstract patterns with traditional forms,” she said.
She is only four-year-old in carpet designing world and works with leading architects, interior designers in India, Singapore, Dubai and UK. She elaborated on the kinds of techniques she uses. “Warp and weft is the main essence of hand tufted, hand knotted/handloom carpet and we use the same technique. While there are machine made rugs available, our rugs are all handmade.”
She continued, “We make contemporary handmade carpets, which can be customised. I love to mix yarns and embellish them with inputs like Swarovski crystals, leather, metal and wood. I ensure all such embellishments are done by women only and I use the best raw material — whether it is wool, viscose or anything else.”
Designer Rohit Bal also entered into carpet couture with his collaboration with Ege Carpet, which according to Rashi, was a big boost. She said, “Though Ege is largely into machine-made carpets and I only do handmade, it just goes on to show the need and demand for exclusive and signature designs in the flooring world.”
She says carpet designing has always been an intrigue art. “Though it still operates as a cottage industry, I have experienced a surge in demand for Indian rugs from across the world. They are adorning the floors of various palaces and high end residence and the best hotels globally.”
Rashi is inspired by the history. She explained, “I have always been an avid reader, history being my favourite subject. My latest collection Amalgamation takes inspiration from the Mughal architecture. like the Mughal architecture is known for its geometric patterns and jaalis, these rugs and carpets draw from those and have geometric patterns all over, woven in cut with loop piles and wool and banana silk yarns.”As of now, she is working in metro cities. However, she plans entering into tier-two and three cities as well.