The Rug Club

The world of advertising is hogging all my words lately. While I write such scintillating copy such as ‘New Redesigned Can!’ and ‘Now more effective on coughs, colds, and flus’, I managed to squeeze out a few syllables about a recent adventure.

“Come over here, Andrew. Back here with me so you can really take it in. What do you think? You’re the one who will have to live with it.”

The term ‘Oriental Rug’ has always made me cringe. I guess it’s cause as a half-Japanese person, I’ve always hated the term ‘Oriental’. I’m not sure why. I’m not even sure it’s a slur. I’m guessing it has to do with old world terminology about navigation. Besides, my Asian background has been mocked by many better, and more cutting, terms and gestures for sure.

Because of this association, when I’ve consider rugs, an ‘Oriental’ was never on my radar. Truthfully, I think I’ve purchased two rugs to this point in my life – one was for Henry, my dog – so it’s not like I was faced with this decision very often.

But with a hardwood floor space that looked like it needed a little warming up, I decided an Oriental Rug was a possibility. I’ve stopped smoking dope, but I really like how you can get lost in the details of an intricate Oriental rug. As ‘The Dude’ played by Jeff Bridges said in ‘The Big Lebowski’, it can really tie a room together. Also, during my few years as an Audio Director, I always liked how a well-placed rug in a sound studio changed the mood, acoustics, and just looked fucking cool with a guitar-wielding musician standing on it.

So I started to do some research. Cause I’m a rug novice.

And I learned two things very quickly. First of all, the rugs that we traditionally refer to as ‘Oriental’ are from a belt of countries that span across Asia and aren’t exactly Chinese, Japanese, or Korean at all. Duh – you probably know this, cause you’re fucking smart and cultured and I buy rugs at IKEA. Most of the rugs I deem as ‘Oriental’ are Persian, or from Iran.

Turns out, a reputable dealer of these ‘Persian’ rugs was right in my neighbourhood. A place called ‘The Rug Club’ in Parkdale. I always thought the store was a front for some kind of drug business cause I never saw anyone go in. I wondered ‘How does a guy who just sells rugs stay in business?’. Turns out it’s because of the second thing I learned about these rugs…

They’re fucking expensive. Who knew? Oriental rugs are not a punchline at all. These suckers go for big bucks. No wonder ‘The Dude’ was so pissed about his getting wrecked.

Anyhow, I wandered in. And over the next hour, I didn’t just feel like a potential customer. I felt like I was the special guest of Mr. Mehdi Rahimzadeh. A third-generation rug expert with the family photos and stories to match, he showed me all kinds of gorgeous floor coverings from his hundreds in the shop – both within and outside of my budget. Most were outside of my budget. I seem to like the really expensive shit. The detail woven into some of these rugs is mind-boggling. You can really get lost staring into a rug.

Every time I was interested in one, he wouldn’t just tell me about the rug itself – the dyes, the process (the rug is bathed in yogurt to set the dyes) – we would go to the map of Iran on the wall and he would tell me about the city the rug was from. Its customs. What he ate when he was there. What time of day you get in on the train and where the sun is in the sky.

He travels to Iran three times a year to visit family and look for rugs to bring back. His next trip is in late May. The way he beamed about his adventures, this Indiana Jones of carpets, he made me wish I worked for him and was coming along for the trek.

I kept coming back to one carpet.

We spread it out on the floor. Mehdi removed the other rugs so we could focus on it alone, and we stared at it together.

“Come over here, Andrew. Back here with me so you can really take it in. What do you think? You’re the one who will have to live with it.”

I started to think about all the other carpets I had seen. I thought about what was trendy or bigger or more expensive or wait, maybe not even a Persian rug at all. Maybe I should go to another place.

Basically, I started to overthink it. I started to be very me.

“You know what, Mehdi” I said. “I like it. I’m taking it. It makes me feel good when I look at it.”

Basically, I told myself to shut the fuck up and be in the moment.

“Andrew”, he said. “There are many carpets here. More expensive ones but this one I like a lot. It is very special. And it makes you happy. That is the whole point! Why have it otherwise?!”

I asked Mehdi to pose for a picture on my carpet. He reclined, beaming.

There is a certain confidence and bravado projected by someone carrying a rolled up rug on their shoulder. As I walked through Parkdale on Sunday afternoon, I hope I telegraphed it properly. One kid walked past me and I nodded and smiled devilishly hoping I’ve planted the rug seed in his fertile mind.

I will lie on this carpet. I will play bass on this carpet. Dogs will play on this rug. It may even see some yoga. I will bet a Ramen noodle or two will accidentally kiss it.

Mehdi says it is over 60 years old already and from Shareza. Whenever he gets to there on his journeys, it is dinner time. And when you walk through the city, the setting sun makes the shadows tall, and at this time of year there is the scent of roses everywhere in bloom.

It is a good story. The romanticized history of a rug. True or not, I hope I will do it justice.

I rolled it out on the floor. The sun hit it and the colours came alive in a way they didn’t in the shop.

This rug makes me happy. I made the right choice.

My Oriental rug.