Luxury, like the language used to define it, evolves with time. An ever-changing chameleon that adapts to the moods and morals of the era. Always modern, yet difficult to describe in absolute terms, for it is qualitative rather than quantitative, subjective rather than objective. At one time it was glittering ostentatious opulence and excess, the unapologetic display of affluence for its own sake. Then came a minimalist retreat, wherein luxury whispered rather than shouted, expressed through quieter, more measured and deliberate tones. Today, in a world teetering between abundance and awareness, the expression of luxury continues to shift form.

When one thinks of a luxurious handmade rug or carpet, it is tempting to focus on the materials of the past. And while recognition must be given to these materials—wool and silk, and the like—the fact remains that when rugs and carpets were first made, these were considered the best options of the materials available at that time. But what of the materials available in this time?

With tradition informing where we have been, the imperatives of this era demand more than romantic halcyon reflections of past prerogatives, begging this generation to ask not the seemingly obvious question of ‘What materials are luxurious?,’ but rather ‘What are the characteristics which make a material luxurious?.’

In a world stained by the consequences of disposability, this shift from feckless indulgence to intentioned consumption, from the fleeting to the enduring, informs consumers who no longer equate luxury with rarity alone. Today it has once again shifted form. Its new vocabulary speaks not of specific materials but of tempered longevity, performance, and sustainability. It speaks of an artistry that increasingly reconciles collective craftsmanship and savoir-faire with the intelligent—dare one say appropriate—use of materials, including as it must, next-generation materials like ECONYL® regenerated nylon.

The Imperative of Responsible Design

It is my belief, one backed by immense volumes of readily available scientific data, that to satiate the human desire to have more, and what is luxury if not more, then the 20th-century notions of mass consumerism must give way to a new vocabulary better suited to the needs of this, the 21st century. This is not to say consumption must stop, but it is to say products and attitudes must adapt to place environmental considerations first and foremost when making decisions about consumption, especially luxury consumption.

For many, this means a fervent embrace of all things natural, which equates natural with sustainable without critical thought or examination. Yes, natural fibers can be sustainable, but I challenge the notion of wool as the most suitable sustainable carpet fiber for all situations; for it is not.

Wool and all natural fibers are biodegradable and thus a rug or carpet made from them is circular in theory, yet to the knowledge of this author there is no concerted effort or system in place anywhere to collect and compost these discarded carpets. There is, it seems, an assumption that a natural fiber rug or carpet will somehow spontaneously compost with no human intervention. ECONYL® regenerated nylon is likewise circular. But instead of a false reliance on the hypothetical, its circularity is due to the efforts of Aquafil to develop a proven and verifiable system to collect and recycle nylon. Products made from either natural materials or ECONYL® can indeed last for extended periods of time, but this ignores our human desire to have new.

This is the conundrum faced by all discussions of sustainability. There is no one singular approach to creating a sustainable product or material. It requires circularity in not only design, but consumption as well. It is this model that I feel must guide any efforts to design, create, market, sell, consume, and indeed dispose of rug and carpets.

Enter rugs and carpets made from ECONYL® Nylon.

A rug or carpet made to last fifty years, perhaps a century, is an act of optimism. It assumes that someone in the future will still care to look closely, still value what was made well, still find appealing the aesthetics of the past. Simultaneously, we use these same rugs and carpets as fleeting embellishment for all manner of short-lived special events, temporary exhibitions, and indeed as decoration—trendy or otherwise—replaced as the whims of fashion ebb and flow. A rug or carpet made of ECONYL® nylon has the ability to satisfy the dichotomy of both of these scenarios in a manner that acknowledges the endurance and performance of nylon, and moreover, owing to the materiality of the fiber itself, has the ability to be regenerated, reborn if you will, into something equally as permanent, perhaps if not also decoratively fleeting. Again, made to last, designed to be reborn.

This is the offer of the Bespoke Collection of yarns made of ECONYL® nylon.

Foremost is color, the alluring attribute that first catches the eye and piques our attention. Then comes texture, the enriching characteristics that offer depth and warmth. When combined as they are in the Bespoke Collection of yarns, the results not only mimic the aesthetics of traditional materials, but also provide the ability to create desirable rugs and carpets that can endure, but don’t necessarily need to. The latter, subject again, to the whims of fashion and the unknown needs and wants of the future.

As modern stand-ins for traditional materials, ECONYL® ReLana for wool, ECONYL® ReSeta for silk, ECONYL® Terra for bast and plant-based fibers such as jute, sisal, hemp, each is a textural and visual delight, able to be colored in a limitless spectrum of rich, enduring, and appealing colors. Each next-generation material likewise mimics in its own manner the visual textures—matte, shiny, earthy—of its inspiring natural counterparts. A skilled and deft designer is now empowered to create rugs and carpets which embody circularity at their core, that meet the demands of scale and function, and possess the appealing aesthetics critical to the success of any fashionable object made for human consumption.

This synergism between color, texture, performance, and sustainability transforms what detractors might consider to be a material with detrimental properties into one with immense potential to allow our human indulgences for luxury floorcoverings, while planning for their eventual end of use and regeneration. This is the true embrace of sustainability required if we are to genuinely address the underlying environmental problems facing civilization, and it will only be successful if we acknowledge our innate desires for crafted beauty.

We must likewise shed the conventional traditional wisdom that a well-made rug or carpet that endures for decades is inherently more sustainable than one destined for obsolescence. Nothing, after all, is permanent, no matter how well made. Instead, we must embrace the cycles of desire and design, and then choose the best regenerative materials of this time to craft rugs and carpets which carry forward the materiality that defines luxury in the early 21st century.

In this light, the modern concept of luxury feels less like invention and more like rediscovery. It recalls an older, slower understanding of value. One rooted in reverence for material and natural processes. Today, true sustainability defines legitimacy, and true sustainability manifests itself where tradition meets transformation, where the possibilities of regenerated materials like the ECONYL® Bespoke Collection allow for luxurious indulgence without further burdening the future. Luxury, it turns out, was never about abundance.

As our world reawakens to the costs of consumption, the objects that matter most will be those that embody longevity, perform with grace, and carry within their fibers a commitment to not burden the future with poorly designed detritus.

Curious about the roots of circular design? Explore the evolution of ECONYL® regenerated nylon in handmade rugs