How Kendall Jenner's 'Fitting Room Rug' Took Me on a Jute Fibers Magic Carpet Ride
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Inside Supermodel Kendall Jenner's Tranquil Los Angeles Home, Image by William Abranowicz [IG} Architectural Digest, July 22, 2020.
Anne of Carversville has supported Kendall Jenner since the inception of her modeling career. Kendall has always been an empathetic human being to us, and we’ve made every effort to support her evolution as a person first and a top model second.
One night in April, I was Google searching late at night, and I came upon this summer 2020 Architectural Digest feature on Kendall’s home. I knew about the house but hadn’t seen images, so of course I had to check it out.
The earthiness of the interior had great appeal to me, especially within the context of my growing commitment to living and writing about sustainability. It’s very possible that Kendall’s terrace chaise — featured above — caught my eye. It’s a piece of furniture on my buy list.
Inside Supermodel Kendall Jenner's Tranquil Los Angeles Home, Image by William Abranowicz [IG} Architectural Digest, July 22, 2020.
Architectural Digest makes it very easy to visit the websites of brands, design professionals and other interesting sources of information featured in their articles.
Of course, Kendall’s “fitting room” got my attention This is Anne of Carversville, a 5-star fashion blog with a conscience, complete with Kendall Jenner fashion archives.
Covering the floor of Jenner’s “fitting room” is a vintage Malayer rug from Lawrence of La Brea. Was this the first time I saw the name of the renowned Los Angeles showroom offering antique and contemporary woven rugs from around the globe?
I doubt it, but the play on words — Lawrence of La Brea — made my imagination smile. Upon entering the website, with its message “Luxury rugs for every dance of life”, I smiled again.
Simply stated, I love creative, gracious, grounded businesspeople who are storytellers. They are my tribe. Wandering around the website, I made a mental note to return and then turned out the lights.
Fast forward now to last weekend, when I worked on organizing my thoughts for writing about sustainable fibers on AOC. Elephant conservation and the world of bonobos are passionate interests my entire life. My wanderlust love of the world and its people is well-established on AOC.
Now I want to take on a serious study of plant fibers, specifically: raffia, hemp, bamboo, jute — the entire classification of sustainable plants and also new offerings like cactus vegan leather. The endeavor is a new project for AOC and me personally
With a brain that swings far and wide in my interests, putting a fence around the focus of these new articles seemed important. To that end, I hitched a ride on Google, with results that truly surprised me.
The Google Hunt for Jute
Monday’s post Chandon Garden Spritz's Artisanal, Sustainable Spirit Splash Comes With Bit of Jute was not the top Google response in my initial search. It actually came after I set the Google time criteria to the last month.
My decision to go narrow for a new post topic came because my initial, broader search for jute in the luxury market delivered such a surprising result that I made a screenshot. The search query was defined for the luxury market, because most of our fashion posts are tied to that business sector. Note that my search was NOT about jute rugs. Handbags could have come back just as easily. Or patio furniture.
The first response to my query was a July, 2019 PR Newswire report about 2024 projections for the global jute bag market. And the second response? “A Buyer’s Guide to Designer Jute Rugs” from — wait for it — Lawrence of La Brea.
With my stars crossing twice with Lawrence of LaBrea in two-three weeks, I reached out to them immediately, asking for further input on jute rugs. The result is: 6 Reasons Why Interior Designers Vouch for Jute Rugs | AOC Agrees is found here — along with a new term in my vocab — “biophilia”.
