Madeline Weinrib Is Back with a Limited-Edition Line of Rugs
Last year, textile designer Madeline Weinrib walked away. After 20 years in business, over which time her handmade carpets and fabrics became cherished staples of the decorating community, she decided to shutter her namesake company. “What I began to feel very strongly was that if I was going to continue I was gonna have to go into mass production,” she recently reflected, citing rising costs and today’s relentless culture of knockoffs. “I didn’t want to change my mission, which was to keep the process artisanal. So my decision was to close and start something new.” Mourning the loss, fans of her signature geometric flat weaves and graphic ikat prints all wondered—what’s next?
Now, Weinrib has gotten back to her roots, teaming up with design dealer Cristina Grajales on an ongoing collection of limited-edition carpets, which will be available at Grajales's gallery. “I wasn’t planning on making rugs,” admits Weinrib, who, in her reclaimed free time, found herself looking at photographs of tiled fireplaces. (Morocco holds a special place in her heart: She is a co-owner of Marrakech’s El Fenn hotel.) When she took images of those geometric patterns to some trusted weavers, her creative juices started flowing. “I said to them—let’s see what we can do,” she recalls. The result was a one-of-a-kind rug, with a very low, sheared pile hand-knotted using vintage silk threads that yield subtle variations in color. She has now adapted the motif into an edition of 12 carpets, each of which will be custom-designed to meet the specifications of a client. One of them will debut in a forthcoming group show at Cristina Grajales Gallery that opens April 25.
For Weinrib, Grajales was the natural choice for a collaborator. “We’ve worked on so many projects and I have always admired Cristina as a dealer and a person,” she explains. “She has a direct, honest, authentic approach—very passionate. And we are both on the same page about pieces having a sense of uniqueness.” That feeling, Weinrib adds, is the biggest challenge for creatives at a time when so many designs are co-opted and copied. Lucky for us, she’s found her sweet spot: “I’m back to being an artist.”
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