The Rug Company, most of us have observed, has transformed the world of rugs. Its varied and innovative creations are a joyful addition to a realm once largely dominated by the beautiful but often predictable designs that we’ve become accustomed to from the Middle East. This September, though, it is raising the bar even higher, with more beautiful than ever materials and finer knotting techniques. Who better, they decided, to collaborate with them on this super-luxurious collection than Alexander McQueen? “When we went to his studio,” says Christopher Sharp, founder of The Rug Company, “we were blown away, not only by how brilliantly he cut, but by what an exceptional designer he was.”
It took them three years to bring the project to fruition and, of course, in the meantime, McQueen sadly took his own life. In a wonderful tribute to him, the rugs he created with The Rug Company go on sale this week.
“First of all, we took McQueen through the different materials we use and explained how each and every piece is handmade by craftsmen in the Himalayas,” says Christopher. “Then we told him he didn’t have to worry about production costs. We wanted to use the finest knotting techniques and the very best materials, which meant we could promise almost photographic reproduction of his designs. And finally, we said we wanted him to be free to do whatever truly represented him. What we got, we feel, is absolutely quintessential McQueen.”
The result is four stunning rugs – and anybody who knew and loved the work of Alexander McQueen will immediately see that these rugs are absolutely “him”. Military Brocade (second picture, £1,330 per square metre, or £6,669 for a rug 2.74m x 1.83m), is made from black hand-knotted wool and has a raised pattern in gold silk based on the embroidery on a coat from McQueen’s autumn 2001 What a Merry-Go-Round show.
The Skull rug (also £1,330 per square metre) is made from hand-knotted wool and silk in grey and beige and uses an iconic McQueen motif. Feathers (£1,440 per square metre, or £9,527 for a rug 2.7m x 1.83m) comes from the alluring print used for McQueen’s packaging and is made from cashmere in four shades of grey. Lastly, there’s Hummingbird (first picgture, £1,955 per square metre, or £9,803 for a rug 2.74m x 1.83m) in cashmere and silk, an almost photographic depiction of hummingbirds in flight, which took 300,000 knots per square metre to achieve.
The rugs come in stock sizes or can be made to order. For a less expensive bit of McQueen magic, there are cushions in wool and silk (from £375).
