Gesture cc-tapis Stroke 1.0 Handmade Rug in Wool by Sabine Marcelis

Dutch-Kiwi designer Sabine Marcelis’s work is at the forefront of contemporary material innovation in product and installation design. She works with glass manufacturers and more, forging partnerships across her industry to bring her ambitiously experimental projects to fruition.

Marcelis’s focus is on allowing happenstance sensory experiences to emerge by juxtaposing combinations of unlikely materials and colors. She was educated at the Design Academy Eindhoven and since founding her eponymous studio in 2011 in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, she has built a remarkable roster of clients in fashion, architecture and art.

Marcelis has created signature pieces for the likes of Rem Koolhaas’s architecture firm OMA, high-fashion labels Fendi and Isabel Marant and luxury beauty brand Aēsop. She has also exhibited at the Salone del Mobile in Milan and won Wallpaper* magazine’s Designer of the Year award for 2020.

Marcelis was invited to create a sculptural intervention for the interiors of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich’s iconic Barcelona Pavilion, which saw the debut of the pair’s timeless Barcelona chair in 1929. For her “No Fear of Glass” exhibition, the designer subverted the original request made to van der Rohe to “not use too much glass” by designing chaise longues, pillar lights and a fountain that feature glass as the main material. The rest of her work is informed by a similarly sophisticated playfulness, as evident in the charming forms she creates — she has designed doughnut-shaped rugs, the multifunctional resin Candy Cube side tables and colorful asymmetrical glass mirrors.

Marcelis has the rare ability to create dynamic and fluid experiences by pushing the limits of craftsmanship. While her enchanting seating, lighting and other furnishings may appear effortless due to their fluid and simple forms, they are the result of relentless attention to detail and venturesome experiments with materiality.

Shop a variety of Sabine Marcelis's designs on 1stDibs.

The cc-tapis rug company creates deep-piled, lustrous Himalayan wool rugs and carpets in a dizzying variety of modern designs, shapes and colors. Each intricate piece is hand-knotted in Nepal by expert Tibetan rug artists over several months. 

The cc-tapis tagline is “Born in France. Designed in Milan. Produced in Nepal.” Its founders — Fabrizio Cantoni and Nelcya Chamszadeh — met while studying hospitality management in Switzerland. While they pursued careers in the hotel industry, they ultimately decided on a change. Chamszadeh’s father owned a traditional Persian carpet shop in Strasbourg, Germany, and the idea for cc-tapis took shape. 

Their first shop opened in Strasbourg in 2001. They later relocated the company to Milan, Italy, in 2011. Cantoni enrolled in a master’s course in interior design and met fellow designer Daniele Lora. Lora became the couple’s business partner and the company’s creative director. Together, the three created the brand name; “cc” is the couple’s surname initials, and “tapis” is the French word for carpet.

At the company’s eponymous laboratory, the cc-tapis design lab, the trio’s love of experimentation allowed them to reach outside of the carpet-making world and promote the imaginations of designer Faye Toogood and architect Patricia Urquiola. Collaborations with designers Sabine Marcelis, Mae Engelgeer and Philippe Malouin also pushed the company into the interior design spotlight.

Today cc-tapis continues to partner with contemporary designers and draws on a broad base of expertise and creativity to make stunning rugs that are the embodiment of furniture as art.

On 1stDibs, find cc-tapis rugs and carpets, wall decorations and more.