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ART + DECORATION I n the world of bespoke rugs, the House of Tai Ping stands out for its extraordinary sculptural qualities achieved with a hand-tufting gun. While most rugs are made on a loom and knotted, tufting is an ancient Chinese technique more akin to embroidery that allows for cutting-edge, multidimensional design. Tai Ping's Kadoorie family began creating these special rugs in Hong Kong in 1956, when one of its textile engineers developed a cut-pile "magic needle" that's a predecessor of the hand-tufting gun used today. One of the company's most famous commissions is a rug created in 1958 for the foyer of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, and over the years customers have included Elizabeth Taylor, J.D. Rockefeller, and English and European royalty. A new $30 million factory in China employs artisans trained in hand tufting and allows its rug designers to refine nuanced and complicated patterns. The Kadoories have helped other artisan rug makers thrive by bringing them under the House of Tai Ping umbrella. In 2005, they purchased Edward Fields Carpet Makers, the legendary New Hampshire rug company started in 1935 by Edward Fields, an innovator who elevated the carpet business into an art form. Fields invented the term "area rug" and produced rugs in WHY RUGS MATTER at the LEGENDARY HOUSE of TAI PING collaboration with the most creative minds of the era including Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Van Day Truex, and Raymond Loewy. Most recently, the House of Tai Ping acquired the dying French heritage rug company La Manufacture Cogolin. Founded in 1924 near St. Tropez by a family of artisans, the rugs are produced solely on antique jacquard looms, used by generations of weavers operating creaking foot pedals and creating extraordinary rugs from designs that have been transferred onto punch cards. The process is slow, and at the top of their game artisans can generate only about a meter and a half of textiles a day. The resulting 27-inch wide patterns come in a roll, which is shipped to your home and must be hand-stitched in place by a trained worker. It's the rarified, old-European way of carpeting, and nothing could be chicer. House of Tai Ping collections, including La Manufacture Cogolin and Edward Fields Carpet Makers, through Tai Ping, 1025 N. Stemmons Freeway, Suite 310, houseoftaiping.com. Rebecca Sherman T wo storied Italian brands will juice up your kitchen when Smeg rolls out its latest collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana this spring. The fashion-meets-home- appliance endeavor debuted to fanfare at the 2017 Milan furniture fair. Themed "Sicily Is My Love," the toasters, juicers, and tea kettles wink at traditional folklore from the Italian island, with lush depictions of lemons, cherries, and prickly pears, united through abstractions of Mount Etna, ornamental friezes, stylized acanthus leaves, and crocchi triangular motifs. Yearning for a matching hand-painted ITALIAN LOVE x 2 Dolce & Gabbana x Smeg tea kettle, toaster, and juicer, $600 each refrigerator? Acquire one that does double duty as a sculpture for your cucina (with a price tag of $50,000). Dolce & Gabbana x Smeg Sicily Is My Love, through Neiman Marcus, Downtown and NorthPark, neimanmarcus. com, williams-sonoma.com. Refrigerator only at neimanmarcus.com. Catherine D. Anspon Bokeh II from Tai Ping's Blur collection Artisans working on Grauman's Chinese Theater rug, circa 1958 Right: Ancient loom at La Manufacture Cogolin workshop in France. Far right: Jardin Interieur collection from La Manufacture Cogolin by India Mahdavi. 52