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AREA
Winter 2019
HARLOW COLLECTION
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M e l b o u r n e The Amara Collection.
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DALLAS, WTC 500 | ATLANTA, BLDG #1, 4-D-2 | LAS VEGAS, B-480 winter 20193.qxp_001 FALL 2006.qxd 11/27/18 10:45 AM Page 6
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK
Dear colleagues, “Hand knotted oriental rugs.” These four words— exclusively for rugs, carpets and other floor cover- dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years—are ings. But today our industry is considered only part the base and foundation of our industry. But in the of a broader mix of home furnishings—as opposed to past decade or so, it appears that these words are a stand-alone product category—and we now exhibit increasingly meaningless—or at least irrelevant—as among furniture and other accessories. Rugs are now our industry shifts to other types of rugs such as a home décor product rather than an art form. machine-made, hand loomed and tufted. It used to be But while this may be sad for those of us who that a hand knotted rug was revered love the traditional handmade ori- as a work of art. Dealers, buyers ental rugs, the market for rugs and consumers alike would inspect remains strong as we adapt to the rugs closely, discuss the pattern, changing demand with increasing- the quality, number of the knots, ly innovative and beautiful new who made the rug, what era it was products. made, what type of dying was used, We just concluded High what quality of wool and so on. Point Market. Despite being hit by Unfortunately, my friends, those hurricane Michael a week before days are of the past and we live opening day, it was relatively suc- among a generation of “dot com” to cessful. There were challenges: whom all these old values are Michael left the city of High Point meaningless to. This new consumer without power for almost a day wan ts a floor covering that covers which made it difficult for the floor and looks good with their furniture. exhibitors to set up showrooms. But thanks to her- Delicate design, fine quality, artisan workmanship, culean efforts by the High Point authorities and local good color combination or a fine work of art for their utility company, power was restored quickly enough floor, holds little or no value. This new generation of for the market to start on time without further inter- consumers prefers to sit at home and order rugs on a ruption. We are now looking forward to Atlanta mar- smart phone or laptop, making their selection on the ket at Americas Mart in mid-January followed by Las basis of ‘look,’ not knots per square inch, where it Vegas Market at World Market Center, Surfaces at was mad e or how it was created. Mandalay Bay and overseas markets later in the This shift is reflected in how trade shows are month. organized today. It used to be that trade shows were I wish you all successful markets and a good focused on our industry—floors were designated winter season.
Ramin Kalaty President - Oriental Rug Importers Association, Inc.
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Winter APublished byREA the Oriental Rug Importers Association, Inc. 400 Tenafly Rd., #699, Tenafly NJ 07670 • 201-866-5054 • www.oria.org
President Ramin Kalaty Vice-President Kami Navid Treasurer Behrooz Hakimian Secretary Hari Tummala Executive Director Lucille Laufer AREA Advisory Reza Momeni, Chrm. Committee Dennis Dilmaghani
Editor-Emeritus Archie Cherkezian Editor-in-Chief Lucille Laufer Editor Sally James Contributing Author Alix Perrachon Contributing Author Carol Milano Contributing Author Ellyne Raeuber 24 Production Artistic Color Graphics