Portuguese luxury rug company Ferreira de Sá introduce the new Pure Collection

Ferreira da Sá’s bold statement—’plain design speaks for itself’—is also profound. It describes their new ‘simple’ Pure Collection of rugs that eschews pattern in favour of materials and technique

Founded in Portugal in 1946, Ferreira de  Sá create custom luxury rugs using three techniques: Portuguese hand-knotting (Beiriz Stitch), hand weaving, and hand-tufting. The Pure Collection is hand-tufted.

The company’s ‘plain design’ statement has a similarity to ‘beauty is truth, truth beauty’—a line from English poet John Keats’ famous Ode on a Grecian Urn. The word ‘design’ in the rug world usually equates to a decorative surface pattern, but Ferreira de Sá’s Pure Collection demonstrates that ‘plain’ can be a conscious and beautiful design decision. ‘Truth’ for Ferreira da Sá translates as pattern-free rugs where focus falls on the inherent ‘truth’ and beauty of natural and sustainable fibres, a concept that also aligns with modern architecture’s notion of ‘truth to materials’ where the ‘nature’ of materials should be celebrated and not hidden.

The Pure Collection focuses on what the company describes as the ‘purest resources’, characteristics increasingly sought by consumers who want the reassurance of ‘less is more’ via reduced use of resources and transparent and easy to understand supply chains. Ferreira de Sá’s concept also ties into the scientific definition of a ‘pure substance’—something that exists in a basic or pure form such as the precious metal gold that cannot be further reduced or broken down. The Pure Collection features four ‘pure’, natural, and sustainable fibres: two from animals and two plant-based. ‘Respectfully treated’ New Zealand sheep and Angora goats provide wool and mohair. Sustainable and responsibly managed forests provide fibres that create bamboo silk and botanical silk made from wood pulp where 98% of the solvents used to convert the pulp to yarn are recycled and reused.

‘Truth to materials’ allows the beauty of Ferreria de Sá’s artisan expertise to come to the fore, creating a ‘simple’ but sublime rug collection that evokes the qualities consumers increasingly seek in the 21st century.