‘Vibes’ pillow rug
‘Vibes’ pillow rug, by Zaven and La Manufacture Cogolin
Since its founding in 1924, the storied French textile brand La Manufacture Cogolin has worked with some of the last century’s biggest names in art and design. From Jean Cocteau and Picasso to Jean-michel Frank and Le Corbusier, the stalwart of Provençal weaving has helped many a great aesthete translate their creative vision into fabrics and floor coverings.
La Manufacture Cogolin’s most recent collaborator – thanks to Wallpaper’s matchmaking for this edition of Handmade – is Zaven, the multidisciplinary creative studio run by Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno out of Venice. With a practice that tends to challenge conventional ways of using objects while cleverly merging product and graphic design, Zaven was at once humbled to follow in such prestigious footsteps and determined to contribute something entirely new to La Manufacture Cogolin’s portfolio. Staying true to their method, the designers set out to question the very definition of a rug: does it have to be flat? Can it be more than a decorative object? The result of Zaven’s inquiry is ‘Vibes’, a pillow-rug-futon hybrid that conflates a two-dimensional pattern with three-dimensional form, creating a novel domestic object ideal for lounging, labouring, loving and most other kinds of living.
‘There is an element of informality to the way we live today,’ explains Zavagno, who along with Cavarzan, looked closely at the laidback seating of the 1970s»
‘Textiles are a bit like paper – the surface allows for infinite creative possibilities’
for inspiration. ‘We are occupying smaller spaces and there is a real need for multi functionalism as we eat, sleep and work in the same environment. “Vibes” is a direct response to this idea of accommodating many different scenarios with one solution.’
Working closely with La Manufacture Cogolin’s expert weavers at its workshop outside Saint-tropez, Zaven proposed a design for the pillow-rug’s surface that, at first glance, appears like a print of an audio equaliser. In fact, the simple-looking but complex-toexecute pattern is a large-scale digital rendering of a ginger flower, whose soothing and refreshing powers nodded to Handmade’s Wellness + Wonder theme. Combining weaving and hand-knotting techniques on a 19th-century Jacquard loom, a team of artisans handcrafted the design over the course of ten days.
‘Usually, for us to make something of this size, it takes two to three days on the loom,’ says Sarah Henry, La Manufacture Cogolin’s managing director. She notes that the project’s complexity, and its extended timeline, came not from the cushioned format but from the pattern, which required the weavers to supplement their work with individual stitches. ‘It was technically complicated to carry out, but also an awesome challenge,’ says Henry. ‘One of the things I love most about Zaven’s design is that it’s both digital and organic. And it’s very modern in its mindset, but full of heritage in its making.’
To complete the design, a fabric backing was sewn to the weaving with a bright-blue stitch, and then the piece was filled – like a giant pillowcase – with a madeto-measure cushion. Though Zaven’s work often uses a punchy palette, for this project the studio opted to work in black and white for a more graphic effect. ‘We also thought about the idea of the binary code, and using less information to create the purest expression,’ says Cavarzan of the back-to-basics colour combo.
With a practice that spans industrial design, conceptual research and material innovation, Zavagno and Cavarzan aren’t strangers to working with textiles. Highlights include a rug collection for Cc-tapis launched last year, and a 2016 collaboration with Nike at Milan Design Week that saw the duo team up with the sports giant’s textile division, to create a lighting installation with lampshades crafted from the brand’s Flyknit technology.
‘For us, textiles are a bit like paper – of course, they are softer, bigger and more organic – but the surface allows for infinite creative possibilities. It is very exciting, very free,’ says Cavarzan.
For their collaboration with La Manufacture Cogolin, the duo opted to use wool (though Cogolin also frequently works with cotton, linen, jute, silk and raffia), eager to include the material’s warmth and comfort in their design concept. ‘Vibes’ features a Chinese-style button knot and a loop closure on the upper end of the underside, allowing the volume to be adjusted: the pillow-rug’s rectangular silhouette can easily shift from an even surface into an undulating form with a raised end providing a head or backrest for optimal reclining.
‘The closure system transforms the piece: it is no longer just a pleasant rectangular shape, now it really envelopes and accommodates you,’ says Zavagno. ‘We set out to create a different, slightly unusual object: the hope is that it inspires a bit of wonder and, of course, allows occupants to come away with a sense of wellness, however and wherever it might be used.’