KALEEN WINS AMERICA’S MAGNIFICENT CARPETS AWARD FOR HAND-TUFTED RUG TARGETING MILLENNIALS
ATLANTA — On the heels of its 2017 AMCA award in the hand-knotted category, Kaleen won top prize in the hand-tufted category at the 2018 America’s Magnificent Carpets Awards presentation ceremony held last week at AmericasMart during the Atlanta International Area Rug Show featuring the National Oriental Rug Show.
Kaleen was honored at the 2018 America’s Magnificent Carpets Awards ceremony, the crowning event of the January rug market, which is co-sponsored by AmericasMart and ORIA (Oriental Rug Importers Association).
Presented this year at a celebratory cocktail reception at the Museum of Introductions where all entries were displayed, Kaleen’s award was for the design excellence and innovation of its Chancellor collection in the hand-tufted $0-$16 per square foot price category.
In accepting the award, Monty Rathi, Kaleen COO, said, “My family and I would like to thank our design team and all the Kaleen associates around the world for all their hard work developing and producing our great products. Chancellor is one among many. We would also like to thank all our loyal customers for supporting our company.”
Asked why he thought Chancellor won in its category, Rathi told RugNews.com, “Chancellor is very different from what’s available in the market. We are known as a quality tufted manufacturer, and for this collection we developed a space-dyed transitional tufted — it’s a very hard twist tufted, in 100 percent wool.”
A detail of the winning design from Kaleen’s Chancellor collection, shows the intricacy of hand-tufting crafted to achieve the look of a hand-knotted wool rug.
“We got our inspiration from high-end knotted designed, but we wanted to make it more affordable for the millennials so that they can buy that kind of stuff.” Introduced last July market, the collection began shipping in October. “It’s been a really good seller,” Rathi continued. “When we launched that collection, the customer reaction was phenomenal. Three big retailers were actually placing orders during market time — something I have rarely seen. Our customer saw something different and unique. It’s a tufted with a hard twist, 2-ply yarn which makes it look hand knotted. When the customers saw it, they said they had to have it.”
The winning design (CHA02-75 Grey) features a traditional Persian pattern infused with modern sensibility. The collection is hand-tufted in India of 100 percent space-dyed wool in a quarter-inch pile height in colorways that range from warm bolds to serene cool tones and grayed neutrals. The rugs are hand-serged and hand-finished and offered in custom sizes.
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