One of the most under-appreciated manufacturers that we are actually quite honored to carry are rugs by Lila Valadan. As the only real modern woman run Persian carpet business, she has sought to show the Contemporary area rug as a connection between the tactile and the transcendent. 

Born in Shiraz, a historic city with a storied role in Persian rug production, a young Lila Valadan would subtly rearrange her family home to suit her emerging design sensibilities while undertaking her household chores. Often to the consternation of her siblings. She married Mohammad Naziri in 1982, Naziri already being an established carpet collector and authority on traditional Persian rugs. Both believed in the quasi-esoteric qualities and mythic stature of the Persian carpet in everyday life. And how and they functioned as sort of spiritual currency within the cultural memory of their People. 

To distill this into its essence, they undertook a quest to seek the most remote and exotic tribes in Southern Persia to explore this intangible relationship between weaver and carpet. They found a connection free of influence by commercial production demands, rush to market deadlines, or trends, but rather a devotion to an art that sees the rug as a reflection of the heart and soul of the weaver and their intention for the carpets they created. A love letter. A wedding gift. A symbol of devotion. 

This understanding that feeling should dictate process has become a fundamental value and guiding principle for Lila Valadan. By never seeking a defined style and trusting instinct informed by tradition, she has refined a minimalism that reveals itself as beauty in the purest form. By finding inspiration in timeless patterns, works of art, or the feeling of a moment, aesthetics and emotion merge into an unexpected insight into the very nature of creativity. 

This philosophy has also influenced not only the final look of her designs, but also to manner in which they are produced. Lila Valadan prefers upon small batch production, and rugs still being made as they traditionally have been, woven outside, and not some factory setting. Employing no more than 200 weavers, and using wool from Persian highlands, each rug takes as long as it takes to emerge as a fully formed emissary of timeless traditional and bygone craft.

This highland wool is still dyed using natural sources as yarns had been for centuries until the advent of synthetic dyes. Indigo, saffron, pomegranate peels, and even walnut shells are used in timeless recipes handed down through the generations. This produces dyes that take to each individual fiber of wool in its oven way for the signature abrash and ombre seen in older rugs and cherished for its uniqueness. 

Lila Valadan has emerged as one of the leading voices redefining the art of the modern Persian rug. As a nominee of Architectural Digest's AD 100 and a nine time Carpet Design Award winner, Lila Valadan has remained ahead of the curve by bravely plotting a course true to not only herself, but to the spirit and integrity of generations of women who have made something as common place as a rug an opportunity to explore innovation and expression so fundamental and necessary for the human soul.