Black Versace-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug

The Versace drawing is worked in olive green over black here, with gold surfacing wherever the light lands: Black Versace-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug, 200 × 300 cm (6'7" × 9'10"), pure silk in the motifs, wool across the surface, cotton underneath, made in Vietnam for this house alone. Silk is the reason the rug will not sit still.

01Up close to the pattern

Under daylight the olive comes forward and the gold reflections open out; under lamps the field closes back toward black and the pattern reads as relief rather than as color. That gives a black rug the thing black rugs usually lack, which is a second appearance.

02Which furniture, which room

In a room laid out symmetrically — two facing sofas with a fireplace between them — the pattern's own symmetry does the work of an axis. Under a table for eight it holds the chairs inside one shape, and it goes on doing so when they are pushed back. Wool takes the surface and the traffic; cotton makes the foundation; the pure silk is spent only on the motifs.

03Knot by knot, by hand

The weave is dense, which is what a drawing this fine needs if it is to stay legible from standing height instead of dissolving. On dark timber the rug sinks into the floor. On pale stone it does the opposite and cuts. This series was designed and produced for Halıcızade and is not carried in any other collection. Send it to a rug specialist when it needs washing. Hand-knotted in Vietnam, exclusively for Halıcızade. Wool and pure silk in the pile; cotton in the foundation. Black ground with the Versace pattern in olive green and gold reflection. Pure silk changes the pattern's brightness between daylight and lamplight. A dense weave, which is what keeps fine drawing readable from standing height. 200 × 300 cm (6'7" × 9'10"): enough for two facing sofas, or a table for eight. Not carried in any other collection. Professional washing. Big windows are what it was made for: the olive lifts as the sun crosses the room, and by evening it is a different rug.