Carpets

Call it a casting fluke, call it kismet. In both of her movies premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Kristen Stewart portrays a 16-year-old runaway. For the gritty family drama "Welcome to the Rileys," the "Twilight Saga" star inhabits a role quite unlike Bella Swan, the long-suffering vampire-lover character that made Stewart an international icon. She plays Mallory, a stripper-hooker with a porn star's wardrobe and a mascara-tarred visage whose sexual frankness could make a trucker blush.

The road to Hratch Kozibeyokian's hilltop studio is rutted, and a visitor's ascent is accompanied by a chorus of roosters and dogs. Any doubts about having misread the map, though, disappear as a pair of room-size patterned carpets come into view. Spread out on the pavement between the spacious house and workshops, they look like palatial welcome mats. As owner of Kilim in West Hollywood's design district, Kozibeyokian was a well-known dealer and restorer of fine Oriental rugs. Ten years ago, he and his wife, Mira Assadourian, decided to devote themselves exclusively to restoration, selling the store and building Ko 'Z' Craft, their aerie in the San Fernando Valley community of Shadow Hills.

Something odd is happening down at Farid Niazi's snug, dimly lighted carpet shop. Though sales at many businesses have plummeted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Niazi's Persian Rug Gallery in downtown Ventura is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. Day after day, people march in and burrow through stacks of Persian, Chechen, Indian and Chinese rugs until they spy their quarry--the dark, tribal rugs of Afghanistan. "The last few weeks have been amazing," said Niazi, a native of Kabul.

Jorgen Evil Ekvoll and Can Sayinli's hand-woven silk rug -- a design called War, depicting a baby surrounded by bleeding bodies, hand grenades and guns -- sold for $60,000 at the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition in December. Dan Golden's wry cartoons of cigarette-smoking canines, psycho-babbling infants and the Red Cross symbol with the tag line "Morphine Is the Best Medicine" on hand-tufted wool sell for $6,750 each at Eccola Imports in L.A.

BEFORE my recent trip to India, I asked two rug importers in the U.S. about reputable carpet merchants in the places I planned to visit. One dodged my request altogether. The other tried to dissuade me from buying anything. "You would be wiser to buy in the U.S. from a merchant you trust," said an e-mail from John B. Gregorian, author of "Oriental Rugs of the Silk Route" and president of Arthur T. Gregorian Oriental Rugs, a store in Newton Lower Falls, Mass.

At first glance, the link between global politics and home decor might not be obvious. But in fact, the two always have been linked. The opening of trade with Japan in the 18th century caused a frenzy in Europe for motifs and designs of "Japonaiserie"; Britons with links to India in the 19th century decorated their houses with wicker and paisley.

Bob Rue, renowned locally as a wit and bon vivant, figures he has two ways to make a pot of money in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Plan A is to leverage a book deal out of his sudden -- but probably fleeting -- international fame as the author of a series of vaguely sinister but funny anti-looting messages that he hand-painted on storefronts around the city's ritzy Garden District in the first days after the storm.

The '70s are happening a second time around, in more ways than one. From flared jeans and platform shoes to geometric prints and oversized sunglasses, the exaggerated silhouettes of the decade have become staples of 21st century closets. Psychically, it's something of a flashback as well: We're adjusting our collective self-image in the wake of Sept. 11 and a steady diet of moral malfeasance, much as we did 30 years ago with the Vietnam War and Watergate.

Only a few people in the North Carolina auction room paid much attention when bidding started on Lot 57, described sparingly in the catalog as an 18th century Turkish carpet expected to fetch $5,000 to $10,000. But that changed as the bids moved briskly past $50,000. Auctioneer Robert S. Brunk, surprised by how quickly his estimate had been passed, deftly kept the interested bidders in view, swinging from one to another. The price moved up in $10,000 increments.

There will always be those who ridicule California as the home of the wacky. A new ad campaign for a Du Pont carpeting is about to give those critics more fodder. The campaign features some of the funkiest-looking mom-and-pop shops in the state. All are California businesses housed in buildings that look like the products they sell. There's the doughnut-shaped Donut Hole in La Puente. There's also the hot dog-like Tail O' the Pup in West Hollywood.

The road to Hratch Kozibeyokian's hilltop studio is rutted, and a visitor's ascent is accompanied by a chorus of roosters and dogs. Any doubts about having misread the map, though, disappear as a pair of room-size patterned carpets come into view. Spread out on the pavement between the spacious house and workshops, they look like palatial welcome mats. As owner of Kilim in West Hollywood's design district, Kozibeyokian was a well-known dealer and restorer of fine Oriental rugs. Ten years ago, he and his wife, Mira Assadourian, decided to devote themselves exclusively to restoration, selling the store and building Ko 'Z' Craft, their aerie in the San Fernando Valley community of Shadow Hills.

Call it a casting fluke, call it kismet. In both of her movies premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Kristen Stewart portrays a 16-year-old runaway. For the gritty family drama "Welcome to the Rileys," the "Twilight Saga" star inhabits a role quite unlike Bella Swan, the long-suffering vampire-lover character that made Stewart an international icon. She plays Mallory, a stripper-hooker with a porn star's wardrobe and a mascara-tarred visage whose sexual frankness could make a trucker blush.

NEW rugs fashioned by famous designers or sold in limited editions often are touted as investments, like fine art. But just as in that fickle field, it's hard to predict which rugs will appreciate in value. Contemporary rugs are a small part of the 20th century furnishings market, Peter Loughrey of Los Angeles Modern Auctions said.

Jorgen Evil Ekvoll and Can Sayinli's hand-woven silk rug -- a design called War, depicting a baby surrounded by bleeding bodies, hand grenades and guns -- sold for $60,000 at the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition in December. Dan Golden's wry cartoons of cigarette-smoking canines, psycho-babbling infants and the Red Cross symbol with the tag line "Morphine Is the Best Medicine" on hand-tufted wool sell for $6,750 each at Eccola Imports in L.A.

Lots of things are made in China -- toys, Boy Scout badges, socks, shock absorbers, chain saws, to name a few. But when the Chinese needed a carpet for Shanghai's international airport, they looked to the City of Industry, home of Bentley Prince Street, the largest commercial carpet manufacturer in California. Bentley Prince recently finished outfitting 100,000 square yards of the airport in bluish-gray modular carpeting made from recycled content with renewable energy.

Standing next to piles of exquisitely hand-woven Persian rugs, Hossein Ghaseminia is confident his rugs, which cost as much as $50,000, can fend off cheaper Asian rivals and withstand threatened U.S. sanctions. One of Iran's best-known exports, Persian carpets made from silk, wool and cotton are traditionally woven by women in villages who use natural dyes derived from plants to color them in rich hues where red, brown and cream dominate.

BELIEVE it or not, there is a case being made for using certain animal skins as rugs. They are gaining favor as floor decor to the dismay of those who believe neither hide nor hair of any animal should be used in the home by anyone other than its original owner. But interior designers and retailers say there is new acceptance of cowhide and sheepskin rugs, especially in exotic patterns, unusual colors and different shapes. "It's organic. People like the texture and feel of it.

BEFORE my recent trip to India, I asked two rug importers in the U.S. about reputable carpet merchants in the places I planned to visit. One dodged my request altogether. The other tried to dissuade me from buying anything. "You would be wiser to buy in the U.S. from a merchant you trust," said an e-mail from John B. Gregorian, author of "Oriental Rugs of the Silk Route" and president of Arthur T. Gregorian Oriental Rugs, a store in Newton Lower Falls, Mass.

Bob Rue, renowned locally as a wit and bon vivant, figures he has two ways to make a pot of money in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Plan A is to leverage a book deal out of his sudden -- but probably fleeting -- international fame as the author of a series of vaguely sinister but funny anti-looting messages that he hand-painted on storefronts around the city's ritzy Garden District in the first days after the storm.

OUTDOOR carpeting used to mean Astro Turf, a green plastic more suitable for an Easter basket than a barefoot frolic. Although all-weather rugs have been rolled out for a few seasons now, they were largely flat Tuscan tapestries in a choice of colors, as long as you wanted neutrals. Then came Sandy Chilewich (www.chilewich.com), the designer who brought textural vinyl weaves and vivid contemporary color to the outdoor floor.