Rugs are not sexy. Or at least they hadn’t been for two centuries — until Christopher and Suzanne Sharp of The Rug Company came along to disrupt the industry. “Most rugs were made by ‘tufting,’ which is like painting by numbers with a wool-loaded gun,” says Mr. Sharp. “You could make one in a week.”
Their mission: revive interest in traditional methods and highquality, hand-loomed rugs.
That lofty goal began when the couple fell in love with a rug in Jaipur while on their honeymoon. Flash forward to four years spent in Riyadh, where Suzanne scoured souks for unusual pieces and amassed quite a collection.
Back in London, they opened a showroom in 1997. Notable UK decorators started designing for them — talents such as Nina Campbell and Mary Fox Linton — and the rest is history.
Today the Sharps operate 22 global showrooms — all filled with capsule collections by fashion luminaries like Paul Smith and Diane von Furstenburg, as well as their own designs. In fact, apart from their website, the two Manhattan outposts are the only places to purchase a Rug Company rug in NYC.
Their handmade pieces can go for $5,000 to $40,000, but these other numbers put the Sharps’
3 — New pieces designed by Kelly Wearstler, making a total of six in her collection. They met the designer through her father-in-law, who was staying at the same LA hotel as the Sharps.
1983 — Year the couple finally met at a party after admiring each other on a London Underground platform for weeks.
38 — Countries the couple has visited together.
39 — Partnerships The Rug Company has entered into with designers, including Tom Dixon and Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.
85 — Days Christopher travels each year to hunt for design talent and inspiration and act as the brand’s evangelist in St. Petersburg, Dubai, Hong Kong — and, of course, New York. (As the creative director, Suzanne is usually in the London office.)
300 — Hours it takes to weave one of the new rugs from Diane von Furstenberg.
1 — Weeks each handstretched rug dries in the Nepalese sun before being individually finished.
6 — Sourcing trips the couple take each year; last year included Turkey, Morocco and a three-city tour of India.
35 — Age the Sharps were when they launched their company.
9 — Minimum number of months it takes to handweave silk aubusson wall hangings such as Poppy Night from the Alexander McQueen collection.
500 — Knots per square inch in a silk aubusson tapestry.
10,000 — Elevation, in feet, at which the sheep — who produce the coarse, lustrous, high-tensile wool used in the rugs — roam in the Tibetan Plateau.
10 — Rugs in the Sharps’ homes, including Tracery by Kelly Wearstler and five rugs from Turkey and India 3,300 — Miles between the Sharps’ homes in London and Kenya to which they travel on their private plane. They also have a home in Italy.
2,000 — Miles driven roundtrip by the company van (one of 21) from London to Switzerland to do a single home consultation.
2002 — Year the company produced a rug for the royal rowbarge Gloriana, which sailed up the Thames during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Three teams of seven weavers worked around the clock to adapt Fretwork, a rug designed by British interior designer Emily Todhunter, with the Queen’s cipher at its center.
1,600 — Workers The Rug Company employs in Nepal.
40 — Pairs of hands that touch a rug from conception to completion.
3 — Average number of inches a weaver can complete in one day.
2,000 — Colors used in Rug Company pieces; the Spectrum design alone has 196 different colors, all handdyed for that particular rug.
719,000 — Knots in the Alexander McQueen Monarch Fire rug.
2,000 — Bespoke projects commissioned last year.
1,000,000 — Estimated amount of spools of wool The Rug Company has used since its launch.
4,000 — Square footage of their SoHo New York flagship, opened in 2002. Christopher Sharp spent some 20 nights in New York last year — mostly staying at the Mercer Hotel.