Handknotted rugs see shift to contemporary designs

"The newest trends in handknotted rugs have been the shift to contemporary designs and exploring brighter colours," Yogesh Chaudhary, director of Jaipur Rugs told fibre2fashion.com.

"At Jaipur Rugs, we make a conscious effort to study trends in the market to keep ahead and our collections by 'Kavi' (the designer) have very much been on target with that. With our more recent collection - Project Error, Kavi experimented in expressing Dabru patterns in two rugs. This is not typical in handknotted rugs," Chaudhary said.

Handknotted rugs typically draw inspiration from old oriental and Mughal patterns. Persian handknotted rugs use techniques in rug-making perfected over thousands of years, according to him.

While talking about dyeing and colouring, he said that a major concern with organic dyes is the colour-fastness that they deliver, forcing them to rely on modern dyeing techniques.

As an industry that relies on artisans and is powered by people - both in manufacturing and purchase, one of the greatest challenges is attracting and keeping interest. "In terms of keeping the markets interested, one of the most important steps is to focus on our core strengths. With the weeding out of a large number of companies, those that continued to do business have been challenged every year to do better and be more innovative," he emphasised.

Jaipur Rugs constantly experiments with textures, moods, patterns and colours. The greatest changes they predict are in trends, and thus purchases, he added.

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Fibre2Fashion News Desk