For 20 years, Italian rug maker cc-tapis has sat at the intersection of ancient craft and contemporary creativity. Finding an exclusive Australian home at design retailer Mobilia, we explore the brand’s impetus for redefining rug craftsmanship and design.
Based in Milan, cc-tapis founders Nelcya Chamszadeh and Fabrizio Cantoni have led an approach that values experimental designs, playful techniques, and respect for artisans. As a result, cc-tapis has become synonymous with some of the world’s most influential and inventive designers, architects and artists, such as Charlotte Perriand, Patricia Urquiola, FormaFantasma, Sabine Marcelis and Faye Toogood.
The brand’s passion for traditional rug-making and design landed their rugs in Mobilia showrooms in 2018. Five years on, following new collections launched in Milan Design Week, we shed light on cc-tapis’ functional ‘floor art’ and what the Australian design community can expect from their new national partnership with Mobilia.
Produced in partnership with Mobilia
Since their inception, cc-tapis have produced all of their rugs in Nepal, woven by Tibetan rug-making artisans. Their hand-spun, hand-loomed and hand-knotted rugs are made from natural fibres, without industrial machinery or chemicals; sustainability underpinning the entire process.
Beyond their in-house design team ‘cc-tapis design lab’, notable designer collaborations express the brand’s fascination with colour and new ideas or ways of doing. During this year’s Milan Design Week, cc-tapis presented Italian design research studio FormaFantasma’s collection Telegram, which explored giving a voice to the maker through a series of personal messages woven into them.
FormaFantasma said they like working with cc-tapis because “they get the ideas immediately”. “You can work with a company and a concept, and when you get the idea back, sometimes it can feel like it has lost something in translation,” FormaFantasma founder Simone Farresin said. “Instead, with cc-tapis, it’s the opposite, you give something, and you get something back that is better than what you thought. That is really special.”
Italian research-based design studio FormaFantasma founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin in front of their collaboration with cc-tapis, Telegram.
cc-tapis showcased FormaFantasma’s collection Telegram at this year’s Milan Design Week, featuring personal messages woven into the designs that give a voice to the maker.
But the cc-tapis portfolio isn’t just reserved for current-day designers. At the beginning of this year, they presented Les Arcs collection by renowned French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, which featured five new rugs and unseen archives. Originally designed in 1972 for Charlotte Perriand’s iconic Les Arcs ski station in the French Alps, the rugs captured the colour proportions articulated by the architect in original drawings.
Cementing an Australian appreciation for their ‘agenda-setting’ designs, cc-tapis recently appointed Mobilia as their exclusive retailer. Allowing cc-tapis to take focus through dedicated spaces, Mobilia will provide the opportunity for Australian architects and designers to access cc-tapis’ latest collections, including the brand’s most recent Milan Design Week offering.
Cc-tapis showcased the Les Arcs collection designed by Charlotte Perriand in the Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso church, curated by Michela Croci for Milan Design Week 2023.
This year, the Les Arcs collection by French designer and architect Charlotte Perriand saw cc-tapis bring original drawings to life in five new rug designs; available in three sizes and 12 shades.
An enduring collaboration, Doodles by Faye Toogood for cc-tapis is a collection of six handmade rugs that reflects the designer’s abstract and painterly aesthetic and approach.
