Fransje Gimbrère Pushes the Limits of Craft with These Rugs for Zuvier

Double rapier, a process where two rugs are woven at the same time but in mirror image, was new to Dutch designer Fransje Gimbrère when she began a monthlong scholarship at a Belgian mill to develop a rug for housewares brand Zuvier. Restricted to machines already set up, she was drawn to one with colored polyester and gray polypropylene yarns.

“What I liked most is that the polyester is shiny, and the polypropylene is matte. Immediately I wanted to use this opposition to create depth,” she recalls. The polypropylene dulled the saturation of the polyester but, through experimentation, Gimbrère alighted on two attractive blends: warm Terra and fresh Blue. A stripe of greenish gold in the middle harmonizes the hues. As for shape, initially, the weaving mill could only make rectangles, octagons, or circles, but Gimbrère pushed the limits to end up with Phila, its silhouette similar to the Greek letter phi.