Some stories start with a place.

For cc-tapis, a Milan-based rug company, the story begins in the Himalayas. The brand’s foundation is shaped not by design trends or theoretical ideas, but by the practical realities of life at high altitude. In this environment, materials, climate, and daily labour determine how things are made. Wool is not an abstract element, it is part of the local economy. Colour is not a palette choice, it reflects the landscape. Patience is not a virtue, it is a requirement. These lived conditions form the basis of the craft long before a rug is designed. 

To understand this is to understand the tempo in which its rugs are made. Weaving is neither sentimental nostalgia nor an industrial task; it occupies a space in between, where history is alive and innovation is approached with sensitivity. Hands carry knowledge. Techniques endure not because they are archived, but because they are practised every day. Experimentation happens only when the past makes room for it, not when it is overwritten.

‘The Source’ documents this very journey. Beginning in Leh, Ladakh where Himalayan wool is sourced in a landscape of sharp horizons and quiet expanses. Ladakh today, however, holds complexity. The region has become increasingly politically strained in recent years, its identity and resources under constant negotiation. Though concerns around tourism are valid, the region still depends heavily on visitors — not just financially, but for the survival of craft traditions and pastoral livelihoods. Engagement from travellers is part of sustaining these cultural ecosystems.

Further south, in Kathmandu, the cc-tapis atelier operates within a busy, fast-moving city. Workshops are surrounded by everyday urban activity, traffic, markets, construction, neighbourhood life. Craft here continues alongside everything else, not in isolation. 

When 'The Source' ends, what remains are not dramatic vistas but quiet truths: hands at work, wool catching light, streets breathing just outside the frame. Every rug begins not with design, but with land, labour, memory — and the gaze of those patient enough to witness it.

You can follow cc-tapis on Instagram here.

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