Walk through the red doors of no 16 Dixon Street in De Waterkant and you’ll find a melting pot of old and new. Sophisticated cosmopolitan culture meets the age old craft of hand-woven rugs at Cape Town’s favourite rug gallery, Fibre Designs.
What used to be an old naval office, today houses a collection of contemporary hand-woven rugs designed by Pierre Antoine. Pierre’s love for textiles and rugs took flight as a young boy. He literally grew up amongst them.
Pierre’s mother, Belgian-born Yvonne Antoine, established Antoine Persian Carpets Cleaning & Restoration Studio upon settling in Cape Town in 1980. Twenty-five years later in January 2005, Pierre, who has by that time taken over the business, decided to establish Fibre Designs.
Today Fibre Designs is an oasis for homeowners, interior designers and architects needing to create that ideal setting or room.
The words by Geri Weitzman, which you will notice in the gallery, are not only true of your experience at the gallery but also of what Pierre has created for himself. “Sometimes you need to create what you want to be part of.”
Photographer Adriaan Louw visited Fibre Designs a while ago and took these beautiful pictures of the gallery.