Joseph Carini Carpets has teamed up with Italian designer and architect Alessandro Mendini to present The Earthquake Collection at Fragile this week during Salone Del Mobile. This is the first collaboration for Mendini and Carini, and highlights Joseph Carini Carpet’s fine Tibetan weaving techniques with Mendini’s brightly colored design aesthetic.
These carpets were woven by a small group of women weavers in Nepal who started their own business weaving small traditional carpets. Joseph Carini and a select team of weaving masters have been providing these women with training in lost weaving techniques as an effort to preserve a cultural heritage. These designs were in the process of being woven when the huge earthquake hit Nepal in 2015. While none of the carpets were damaged, the women’s homes were damaged beyond repair. Joseph Carini and Alessandro Mendini decided to name this collection, The Earthquake Collection, and the four carpets were named after villages in Nepal affected by the earthquake.
Toto – 6′ x 9′ – silk and wool twill
Rasuwa – 6′ x 9′ – silk and wool twill
Dhading – 6′ x 9′ – silk and wool twill
Gorkha – 6′ x 9′ – silk and wool twill
Alessandro Mendini has played an important role in the development of modern Italian design, and is well known for his mixing of different cultures and sensibilities to push design boundaries and forego conventional notions of function. Some notable aspects of Mendini’s work are smart clean designs, with a colorful playfulness and these keystones are expressed once again in this carpet collection.
Upon hearing about the opportunity to collaborate with Mendini, Carini was thrilled at the prospect of working with a design icon whose design philosophy aligns so closely with his own. Joe Carini’s love for mixing different graphics and bringing interesting forms of expression into his carpet designs is what keeps him passionate about his work and the art of carpet weaving.
These designs are a limited edition collection, and Joseph Carini Carpets will only be making 10 sets of each design. The designs can be custom made in any size and material preferred.