Just like his father before him, Kamyar Moghadam also supplies carpets to the Royal House of Monaco. Born in Hanau near Frankfurt, Moghadam is a designer and retailer of avantgarde luxury carpets. He studied design in Paris together with fashion guru Tom Ford.Today he lives in Monte Carlo and runs concept stores in Monaco, Paris and Frankfurt with his label ‘Fashion for Floors’. At Ambiente Moghadam told us about his new passion for carpet tapestries and the on-trend colour canary yellow.
He moves quickly because – as always – he doesn’t have a lot of time. “I’m a hunter. I’m interested in inspirations”, says Kamyar Moghadam as we meet him on his tour of the fair. Together we prowl the halls. The 46-year-old designer makes up his mind immediately about what’s good and what’s not. In fact, yellow is what’s really good. “That’s one of the next big colours. Sunny yellow, lemon yellow and canary yellow, whatever. The important thing is that it screams out”, he explains. His latest carpet collection also takes up precisely this strong summer colour. The German-Iranian designer, who once described himself as the ‘DJ of floor coverings’, uses unconventional material mixes – wool, felt, cool denim, fur, dyed, shaved, combed, with dabs of colour and much more. And of course lots of yellow. He surprises us with his statement that “carpet tapestries are back”. Our thoughts turn to old villas with dusty and outmoded historical wall hangings and to hand-crafted macramé. But: “The new carpet tapestries are completely different. They are informed by floor couture, sensuality and eccentricity.”
The trend towards naturalness that is a common theme throughout Ambiente is 100% his thing too. “I try to take details from nature, such as the structure of birds’ feathers, and use them in my carpets.” Moghadam is also the soul of discretion when it comes to his clients. We’d have loved to have known how he designed the play carpet for the royal twins. He was also responsible for the magnificent carpet for the marriage of Albert II and Charlène, a gift from his family to the Monaco royals. The 550 square metre creation was designed by Jan Kath from Bochum and 500 people were involved in its manufacture.
So what characterises the interior design of the super-rich in Monaco? “Mostly purist, no distractions in the room. Superior wood, natural stone, pure savoir-vivre. That’s also how I’ve designed my own house. In May, I’m opening a new gallery in Monaco offering exclusive home accessories and art. At Ambiente I am therefore looking for things that will appeal to the tastes of the residents of Monaco.” Hardly had he finished the sentence when he discovered a pot with an eye-catching floral pattern. Isn’t it a bit chintzy? “Yes, but I currently find that really fresh and attractive. Particularly with these gold details. Some of these pieces are inspired by blue Delft. That, too, fits with the savoir-vivre of the Monegasques, as the residents of Monaco are called. And the term he comes up with for this soft colourfulness is ‘granny chic’.
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Time is hurrying along and we do likewise as we head to Scandinavia to visit Danish design label Bloomingville. “I very much like this reduced, light interior design style. It could go down well in Monaco”, says Kamyar Moghadam about the mix from the sun-deprived north, which features ice cream tones (mint!), copper and Sixties cool. ‘Make it simple, but significant’ is what it says on a wall sticker. It’s a bit Pippi Longstocking and a bit superior flea market. The lights, candle holders and vases of the Danes are almost all informed by geometric shapes and patterns. It’s all quite minimalist and a naked bulb hangs as if suspended in a mathematical model. “The light I made for my own house looks quite like that. I couldn’t find any I really liked so I built my own out of various different elements.” You can see he is itching to get involved: “I’d like to design lights. I’ve certainly got plenty of ideas.”
