It’s a Blanket, It’s a Textile, It’s…Wall Art?

Welcome to Sitting Pretty, a column that explores how timeless design and contemporary culture shape our homes today.

When German interior designer Tim Labena saw the jacquard woven photo blanket at Loewe’s Milan boutique, he knew he had to have it. It was 2018, and the Spanish luxury fashion house had produced an 80-some piece collection of homewares for design fair Salone del Mobile. There were blankets and tapestries, leather frames and decorative boxes—pieces that blended experimental modernity and craft-focused tradition with Loewe’s signature quirk. The design that caught Labena’s eye was a blanket printed with a black-and-white photo, an undated and previously unreleased snapshot of influential American photographer Steven Meisel locking lips with an unnamed man. Almost five years later, it still hangs as the focal point in Labena’s living room, right above his B&B Italia Tufty-Time sofa.

"I’d been keeping my eye open for something that would fit the space perfectly," recalls Labena. He knew right away the statement throw was destined for his wall. "Something this beautiful…you would never use it as a blanket. Everyone should be able to see it." Since the piece was handcrafted and made to order, it took six months to arrive at his Berlin home. It got there just in the nick of time, on the day Architectural Digest photographed the apartment Labena shares with his partner Hannes Kraus. The pair had the photographer shoot the unit’s other rooms while they unboxed their new heirloom. "When it arrived, we just nailed it to the wall," Labena laughs. "I think it would’ve been very straight and precise if it was professionally mounted. But we like how it hangs a little loose and imperfect." The slight slouch hammers home that the woven piece is a blanket, not a precisely framed and mounted print.

Loewe isn’t the only fashion label to explore gallery-worthy textiles, or art blankets. Bless, the Parisian art-project-slash-fashion-brand, sells a selection of woven cotton blankets with fringed edges and photographic prints. American designer Sean Brown, known for his tufted rugs referencing 1990s and early 2000s hip-hop, sells one throw printed with an iridescent luxury car, and another for devoted chairheads. The designer also partnered with artist Rebecca Maria on a woven throw of her ethereal Lil Wayne painting. French clothing brand Carne Bollente teamed up with late artist Tom of Finland’s estate to put a shirtless cowboy on a blanket.

Artists are getting in on the action, too. Gagosian Gallery sells limited-edition cashmere blankets—created using a double-sided jacquard technique—with painter Jonas Wood. (The gallery also sells a silk rug embellished with Wood’s art for $30,000.) You can buy a Josef Albers tapestry, KAWS throw, or sizable Ed Ruscha silk scarf through Artware, an online marketplace with functional homewares by visual artists.

If you’re looking for something more traditional, which is to say decades older, the Brooklyn store Sharktooth has a well-stocked curation of antique and vintage decorative textiles. The duo behind the shop—Lorenza Lattanzi and Kellen Tucker—sources from flea markets, annual auctions, estate sales, and specialized dealers. (Prices range from $600 to $3,000.) "Buying a textile is not quite the same commitment as a painting, and you can live with it in multiple ways," says Tucker, although both storeowners admit that most people have to be taught the pieces in their shop work wonderfully as wall art. "The majority of people tend to buy for the floor, but over the past couple of years, more and more people have been buying for the wall," adds Lattanzi.

"Everyone knows to put the rug on the floor, to put the blanket on the bed," says Tucker. "How do we give people examples of how to live with these textiles other than conventional ideas?" To start, she and Lattanzi custom-built a hanging system that allows a textile to be securely and delicately attached to a ready-mount base; all the customer has to do is take it home and drill it into their wall. A common dilemma they hear in the store is, "I love it, but I have no space to put it." This is usually their cue to suggest hanging it on a wall. They recommend Shaker textiles and Navajo and Mexican rugs, which tend to be lighter in both visual and physical weight. "Anything with a framed border also looks great," explains Lattanzi.

Labena, Lattanzi, and Tucker all mention that visuals are essential when considering a hanging textile. The art blanket brings a textured, lived-in warmth to a room that canvas art or photography can’t quite match. A vintage rug on the wall can add a certain charm to a modern home and an eye-catching woven throw can inject an artful energy to an otherwise unadorned room. Still, buying a blanket or rug to hang on the wall can feel counterintuitive, like purchasing a square peg for a round hole. But textiles and tapestries have hung in homes for thousands of years—perhaps we need to expand our collective definition of art. "I think we get stuck with names," says Lattanzi. "Art is for the walls, textiles and rugs are for the floors. But there are no rules. It’s just a matter of showing people what’s possible."

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Top photo courtesy of Tim Labena.

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