Kelly Wearstler’s New Music-Inspired Rug Collection
Rhythm and design.
Kelly Wearstler’s newest rug collection—Crescendo—explores how musical rhythm and movement can be expressed in material form. Celebrating a decade of collaboration with The Rug Company, the iconic designer’s new music-inspired collection uses design and material to infuse each piece with movement and flow.
With a distinctive storytelling-focused approach to design, the spaces and pieces Wearstler creates feel both maximal and intentional. Her creative work balances materials, form, texture, and colour, imbuing spaces and objects with layered depth.
She also takes this approach in the Crescendo collection. Comprising six new rugs in two colourways, the pieces explore an interplay of geometric and natural forms, with a sense of visual movement reminiscent of musical rhythm. The rugs are handknotted by artisan weavers in Nepal, bringing traditional techniques and expert craftsmanship to Wearstler’s modern designs.
Techniques and textiles—such as wool, silk, nettle, and linen—were chosen to create contrast, lend a sense of movement, or add an almost sculptural quality through texture. Take the Runa rugs, which feature natural-silk squares in layers for a trompe l’oeil effect, adding textural depth on a Tibetan wool base—available in either warm clay tones or hues of green. Or the Elowen rugs, which combine different weaving techniques such as loop pile and cut pile to add textural depth and emphasize the tactile qualities of the nettle, wool, and silk.
“Throughout each stage of my design process, I draw inspiration from a variety of creative mediums, and music has always been a muse for me,” Wearstler says. “Crescendo captures the dynamic energy of musical composition, transforming it into a tactile, artistic expression that breathes life into a space.”
Photographs by Guel Sener.
