A Cultural Journey
To travel the ancient Silk Road is to take a journey through some of the design world’s most loved and long-lasting influences, from colourful ikats and suzanis to ceramics and Persian rugs. This ancient transcontinental trade network stretched from ancient China, through East Asia to the Middle East – with many other spur roads connecting onwards to Europe, India and Africa. The British Museum’s fascinating Silk Roads exhibition (until 25 February 2025) explores these caravan routes, not just through the objects traded, but via cultural exchange, too, and the way that religions, ideas and philosophies travelled alongside goods and people.
In interiors, blending cultural elements and sourcing materials from all over the world is common now, but not at all new: The British Museum’s show proves that trade and cultural exchange have been informing how we live for millennia.
Come and take a journey with Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour and discover some of the products and designs from the showrooms that owe a debt to the Silk Road.
Silk
The product that gave its name to the Silk Road might be as highly prized as it was when China’s Han dynasty opened up trade with the west in 130BC (although people no longer trade silk for slaves, as they once did). There are some sumptuous silks to be found at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, including at James Hare and Tassinari & Chatel at Lelièvre Paris. At Zimmer + Rohde, Ardecora’s latest Sentieri di Seta collection translates as “silk roads”, and includes ‘Babilonia’, a pure silk taffeta. Or put it on the walls thanks to Phillip Jeffries’ ‘Shades of Silk’, which comes in more than 40 colours.
Silk-weaving came to Thailand from China in the 13th century via trade routes and cultural exchange: today, Jim Thompson (available from Fox Linton) is famous for its Thai silks, in both plains and flamingly beautiful ikat designs. And speaking of ikats: Jennifer Manners Designs may be best known for rugs, but the showroom also features a selection of wonderful silk ikat cushions.
No one quite knows the origins of the ikat (which features patterns made using a process of resist-dyeing and elaborate weaving, creating its distinctive blurred outlines). But the history of the ikat is closely intertwined with that of the Silk Road: it’s thought to have originated in Central Asia and then travelled from there, with successive cultures making in their own.
Symbolic pattern
Central Asia, at the heart of the Silk Road, has given us a rich legacy of colour, pattern and motif: as a result, there is never a season where the region isn’t a touchpoint for new collections. With influences from Islamic art as well as nomadic traditions, there are geometric shapes, stylised fruits and florals, circular medallions and bright colour, creating an incredibly uplifting aesthetic. As with ikats, these patterns are not incidental but full of meaning, and originally were often unique to a small area, asserting a highly personal creativity.
Symbolism is particularly strong when it comes to flowers, as a representation of life, renewal and beauty. Next time you spot a stylised carnation, know that it was associated love as well as strength and resilience; while tulips stand for beauty, prosperity and abundance. Find them everywhere from Laboratorio Paravicini’s ‘Iznik’ plates (available at Source at Personal Shopping) to Iksel’s ‘Suzani Carnation’ wallcovering.
Iksel should be one of your first ports of call at the Design Centre for pattern that speaks of the Silk Road. The company has its roots in Istanbul, and a mission to turn archive designs (including wall paintings to historic fabrics) into digital media, preserving all the hand-made quality of the originals. Its collections look to many countries for inspiration, but Turkey and Persia are particular favourites; its Safavid collection includes an incredible scenic wallcovering taken from fabrics found in the Persian court of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Safavid dynasty ruled over Persia.
Flame-like patterns have re-emerged across many collections recently as designers revisit classic motifs that can be used in a richly layered scheme. Originating in early Islamic and Persian textiles, their popularity spread to Europe via the Silk Road, where renaissance Italy particularly embraced them. Misia’s ‘Giulia’ fabric (available at Casamance) and George Spencer Designs’ ‘Backgammon’ fabric are two recent additions to showroom collections.
For a lighter, fresher take on what can sometimes feel like a heavy design aesthetic, try Brunschwig & Fils, which has been at the forefront of US design industry for a century. Collections such as Grand Bazaar (inspired by the ancient trading market of the same name in Constantinople, now Istanbul) take traditional motifs and given them a super-charged injection of contemporary colour, with mixing and matching encouraged.
Pierre Frey has a globe-trotting approach to all it does, with an incredible internal archive to draw on when it comes to creating new collections. Le Manach, the French textile company founded in 1829, which Pierre Frey acquired in 2014, often takes its inspiration from the silks of the Far East and Central Asia. Its portfolio includes ‘Galigai’, based on an early-20th-century Uzbek ikat; and ‘Taraz’, another design based on Central Asian ikats.
Embroidery
Traditional hand-embroidered suzanis from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan were – and still are – highly prized as textiles. Julian Chichester sells a selection of original suzanis, each one different, while many brands spotlight beautiful embroidery in their fabric collections. Recent launches include Osborne & Little’s Byzance collection, with the hero fabric ‘Samrina’, while the coordinating Byzance Trimmings includes ‘Catalpa’ braid with its stylised embroidered trees evoking a traditional tree of life motif.
Carpets & rugs
Kilims – flat-woven textiles found from the Middle East to North Africa and eastern Europe – were widely traded along the Silk Road, prized for their beautiful aesthetics and their functionality. Lightweight and portable and not just used for the floor, they added pattern, colour – and perhaps most importantly, warmth – hung on walls, used as room dividers and bed covers, made into cushions and used as prayer mats.
The Design Centre’s showrooms find new takes on the kilim, translating it into fabric and even furniture. Andrew Martin’s ‘Howard Kilim’ chest of drawers is wrapped in warm-toned fabric, its trunk-like appearance harking back to the kilim’s nomadic roots, while Jane Churchill’s ‘Kilver’ fabric (from Colefax and Fowler) has a charming aged look to evoke a gently eroded rug.
Stark Carpet also has some beautifully faded rugs inspired by Persian originals, perfect for schemes that look like they have developed over many years of collecting; they work surprisingly well with contemporary furniture. Head to Tufenkian Artisan Carpets for a selection of antique Kazak and Karabagh rugs, with vibrant colours and striking geometric designs.
Precious stones
How dull the world must have been before the Silk Road opened up trade in precious stones such as jade, lapis lazuli, turquoise, onyx and agate. Their bright, clear, jewel colours still fascinate, and can be readily incorporated into design schemes.
French brassware brand THG Paris is known for its varied material palette, incorporating lapis, malachite and jasper with metals to express opulence in the bathroom; while Alexander Lamont’s ‘Lapis’ side tables were inspired by semi-precious stones, creating saturated colour from glossy lacquer.
Topfloor by Esti’s Himalaya rug collection – itself inspired by the country-spanning mountain range that included several secondary Silk Road routes connecting India and China – includes ‘Rose Quartz’ and ‘Marble’ rugs that vividly translate the beauty of stone into hand-knotted, custom-made pieces.
Ceramics
There’s a reason why we use the catch-all term of ‘china’ to describe ceramic tableware: it was one of China’s major exports from the first century onwards. It wasn’t until the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that now-ubiquitous blue and white china became widely popular: at the Design Centre, find these classic patterns reinterpreted on everything from basins at the London Basin Company to lamp bases at Paolo Moschino Ltd.
While China was revered for porcelain, Persia was renowned for its glazed ceramics, and the town of Iznik in northwestern Turkey gives its name to richly patterned ceramics that flourished during the Ottoman empire.
The journey of pottery along the Silk Route (and beyond) is an example of the way that trade connections led to new ideas for production. Islamic potters imitated Chinese ceramics, in form and decoration, while potters in China experimented with ceramics painted with cobalt, sourced from present-day Iran.
The end…was just the beginning
The Silk Road lasted until 1453, when the Ottoman empire effectively shut off the western end of the trade route. New sea-going routes were established, but it also had a knock-on effect on European manufacturers, galvanising them to create their own versions of the luxury goods they once imported: silk-making in Venice (visit Rubelli at the Design Centre for Venetian silk with an impeccable pedigree), or porcelain manufacture in France, Italy and Germany.
Meissen was the first to finally work out how to make translucent, hard-paste porcelain like the Chinese in 1710, at first imitating Asian styles; it is still known for its blue and white china, including the ‘Blue Onion’ pattern dating from 1731 and still in production. Head to the Source at Personal Shopping Suite to find more Meissen.
Alexander Lamont, Second Floor, South Dome
Andrew Martin, Ground Floor, North Dome
Brunschwig & Fils, Ground Floor, Design Centre East
Casamance, Third Floor, Centre Dome
Colefax and Fowler, Ground Floor, South Dome
George Spencer Designs, Third Floor, Design Centre East
Iksel Decorative Arts, Ground Floor, South Dome
London Basin Company, First Floor, Design Centre East
Jennifer Manners Design, First Floor, Centre Dome
Julian Chichester, Ground Floor, Centre Dome
Osborne & Little, First Floor, Centre Dome
Paolo Moschino Ltd, Ground Floor, Centre Dome
Phillip Jeffries, Second Floor, North Dome
Rubelli, Ground Floor, Design Centre East
Source at Personal Shopping, Second Floor, Design Centre East
Stark Carpet, Third Floor, South Dome
THG Paris, Ground Floor, Design Centre North
Topfloor by Esti, Third Floor, Centre Dome
Tufenkian Artisan Carpets, Third Floor, Centre Dome
Zimmer + Rohde, Ground Floor, North Dome