Marker tests, brushstrokes and tailoring chalk lines rarely leave the studio floor. For Christopher John Rogers, they have become the foundation of a new collection of rugs.
The New York designer has teamed up with The Rug Company, the London-based carpet maker founded 29 years ago. Its past partners include Marni, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, and it now adds a fashion designer whose work has long been defined by colour and form.
The 10-piece collection, called The Studio, is made up of knotted and flatweave pieces. Rogers drew on the informal traces of his working process, including his musings, mark-making and marginalia, and turned them into colour-saturated abstractions.
“We started with the actual process of making things,” Rogers says. He points to the small, unglamorous marks that appear during production. “When you isolate them or change their scale, they become quite beautiful.” His aim is to take something familiar and push it far enough to feel slightly strange.
Each design maps onto a specific stage of the studio’s work. “Chalk Line” takes its cue from the marks Rogers and his team make before cutting cloth. “Marker Test” started as a set of loose, vigorous squiggles, which expand into a joyful chequered pattern at a larger scale. “Paintstroke” recalls vertical bands of desaturated watercolour.
Rogers sees a broader point in the work. Everyday, disposable material can become the basis for an object that is made with great care. In his view, the studio rug collection is about finding beauty and possibility in things people tend to overlook.
Designers crossing disciplines is a familiar move, and Kim Jones launches eponymous label with Japan-crafted debut shows the same craft-led logic.
Christopher John Rogers Rugs and the Home
Designer rugs are not Rogers’s first venture into the home. He has previously collaborated with the furniture company Orior and with the paint brand Farrow & Ball. A floor covering, though, offered something new. “Floor coverings felt like a particularly interesting proposition,” he says, “because they occupy so much visual and physical space within a room.”
Will Cooper, creative director of The Rug Company, saw the partnership as a natural fit. He wanted the collection to feel young, sophisticated and sexy, in line with Rogers’s fashion work, while still working in contemporary interiors.
The collaboration also involved close attention to colour. Rogers is exacting about shades, and the team adjusted the dyes several times before he was satisfied, according to Cooper.
Textiles can also carry street-level grit, as in Rugsoda’s graffiti-embroidered dumpster bag, a fitting companion read on repurposed material.
The palette is calmer than the one Rogers uses on his clothing. Cooper says people may expect loud, wild colour, but Rogers understood that these pieces have to sit comfortably in a home. The result shows a quieter version of the designer’s aesthetic.
These rugs extend the label beyond the body. Rogers says he has never thought of his work as existing only on clothing. He is building a wider visual language, and he wants people to engage with it in new ways.
Christopher John Rogers
Marker Test Magnolia, 1.83 x 1.22m
Christopher John Rogers
Paintstroke Wool and Silk Rainbow, 1.83 x 1.22m
Christopher John Rogers
Lattoro Coriander, 1.83 x 1.22m
Source: wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
What is The Studio rug collection by Christopher John Rogers?
The Studio is a 10-piece collection of knotted and flatweave rugs. Rogers based the designs on informal traces of his working process, such as his musings, mark-making and marginalia, turning them into colour-saturated abstractions.
Which company produces the Christopher John Rogers rug collection?
The rugs were made with The Rug Company, a London-based carpet maker founded 29 years ago. Its past partners include Marni, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen.
How do the rug colours compare to Rogers’s clothing palette?
The rug palette is calmer than the bold, wild colours Rogers uses on his clothing. Creative director Will Cooper said Rogers understood the pieces had to sit comfortably in a home.
What inspired the Chalk Line rug in The Studio collection?
The Chalk Line rug takes its cue from the marks Rogers and his team make before cutting cloth. It is one of the designs in the collection that each map onto a specific stage of the studio’s work.
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