The Magic Carpet

A stripe is a line, set horizontal or vertical against a single plane. 'Stripes' then, are a series of lines, parallel to each other, defining the space that they inhabit through a system of recurrence. 

The fascinating aspect of lines is that whilst we see them everywhere, they're imaginary. When I think of stripes, I think of latitudes and longitudes, of maps. Though curvilinear, maps are a series of lines drawn in certain patterns to define spaces. They divide as they unite. 

New Stripes by Mitch Trale

So to think that a rug made in an Indian factory flies, magically, across borders and shows up in a living room on the Upper East Side, is what makes the design of stripes a particularly luring one. 

Sand I

Whilst borders and boundaries have always been contested however, the pattern of stripes is simple and sans much refute. They lie alongside each other, in symbiosis, parts of a whole, creating a pattern that is predictable and continuous. It is this continuity that allows stripes to become functional too: A tall person must wear horizontal stripes to cut their height, a short person must wear vertical stripes to elongate their figure. Similarly, a rug with vertical stripes must be placed lengthwise in a room to make it appear longer, breadthwise to make the room appear wider. 

Sloper

Like latitudes and longitudes that define countries in relation to each other, stripes establish relationships between color. A darker color striped on a lighter color, will make the darker one appear as though it is the top layer. This is how designers utilize stripes: as tools that are both simple and infinitely complex, and whilst having a definite start and finish, appear to continue infinitely. 

Smith Stripe

Just as the striped Magic Carpet flies over thousands of imaginary lines, to land in a house made from lines, transcending borders and making peace with itself. Lines, everywhere, are the same. 

Text: Wooly Eyes

Images: Rugs by Raj Collection