India Carpet Expo 2019

An Oscar Isberian Blog by Sarkis Tatosian*

Each time I visit The India Carpet Expo in Varanasi, India, I find something to bring home to Oscar Isberian customers. This fall is no exception. The bi-annual trade fair, which took place October 11-14, 2019, is organized by the CEPC (Carpet Export Promotion Council).

Touted as an international exhibition for the home furnishings, textiles and home décor industries, most of the Expo’s exhibiting manufacturers and exporters come from carpet-producing areas like Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Agra and Jaipur.

At this early fall event, it seemed that many exhibitors were saving their best and newest programmed collections for Domotex in January 2020. This gave me the perfect opportunity to focus on hand-selecting beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces – a guilty pleasure, if you ask me!

While the show always has been international, I did see many more Asian buyers than in the past, as well as a good number of Russian buyers, which was noteworthy. Still, America remains the biggest consumer for India.

As far as color is concerned, while manufacturers (rug makers) claim that buyers are craving more color, when it comes down to actual purchases, our customers in Chicago still want gray and blue. It’s clear to us that the shift toward more color is occurring more slowly than anticipated.

So, what’s actually on the way back to sweet home Chicago? Well, I’m especially thrilled with a selection of new, all-silk, one-of-a-kinds that are truly luxurious. Wait until you see them! I also did manage to find a few hidden pieces that push contemporary in new directions, with black and charcoal grounds and sprinkles of color throughout these unique patterns, which to me felt fun and fresh.

Overall, I was pleased with this early fall trip to India, and though I didn’t come home with sweeping new style or trend directions in mind, I’m sure we’ll discover more in Germany in January. In the meantime, we’ll have plenty of beautiful new designs to tide you over!

Sark ~

*Ghost blog as told to Diane Cotton Caplan.