Video Showing the Process of Handmaking Cocoon Fine Rugs

Mumbai, November 2022:

Developing abilities and growing new talent since 1935. This has been the mission of Istituto Marangoni, which has trained four generations of talents from 107 countries within its international network of prestigiously located schools in Milano, Firenze, Paris, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Miami, and Dubai while remaining faithful to its distinctive Italian identity and educational method.

Staying very close to this ethos, the Mumbai campus of Istituto Marangoni partnered with Cocoon Fine Rugs for a student-led industry project. Cocoon Fine Rugs is a well-known luxury carpet brand established by Ayush Choudhary. The brand reflects true luxury masterpieces that are finely woven by skilled craftsmen. Every Cocoon rug created, has a unique story to tell. The brand regularly collaborates with top-in-class designers to push the design boundaries for its products.

IM Student Designer - Dhruva Jobanputra and Ayush Choudhary – Creative Director, Cocoon Fine Rugs

Talking about the collaboration with Istituto Marangoni, Mumbai, Mr. Ayush Choudhary – Creative Director, Cocoon Fine Rugs, said, “I am extremely delighted to collaborate with the prestigious Istituto Marangoni for this Industry Project. It was truly exciting to mentor a group of students that were so talented and filled with fresh ideas. I wanted to take them on a journey of learning about the age-old art of rug weaving and how artisans are provided empowerment through the weaving process. Guiding the students about the possibilities of various design elements that can be woven and colors was something that I lay focused on. A lot of enthusiasm and creative ideas were exchanged between students and us and the outcome was a beautiful collection coming to life. I wish all the students lots of positivity and luck and look forward to a long-term relationship with the Istituto Marangoni for collaborative learning.”

Initiated in the heart of the lockdown, the brief for the project was for students to create collections reflecting the India Modern theme, with an international outlook. Each student’s collection needed to be unique and original and have a strong identity. Bearing Cocoon Fine Rugs’ luxury brand positioning in mind, the collections had to be high-end, limited-edition, and most importantly, relevant internationally to reflect the latest global trends in interior design.

Speaking about this student-led industry project, the Director of Education, Istituto Marangoni, Mumbai, Mr. Mevin Murden, said, “we are committed to providing students with real-life experience via projects during the course of their studies at Istituto Marangoni. We are thrilled to see this particular project come to fruition, with real tangible outputs. The end result is the perfect recipe of collaboration and co-creation involving crafts and innovation”

After many months of hard work by the students, the final deliverables – mood board, concept, inspiration chart, color chart, material chart, print and pattern charts, minimum 3 designs each (up to 5-6) to visually communicate the story – were submitted for judging to the Cocoon Fine Rugs team.

The winning design collection – Brutal Utopia – was unveiled at an event hosted at the Istituto Marangoni campus in Mumbai on November 10th, 2022, where its designer, Dhruva Jobanputra, was felicitated. The idea behind the collection was to reinvest by modernising, to demolish the stigmatization of ‘raw’ structure, but to keep original values associated with the movement, to design a renewed, and modern concept of a neo-futurist utopia.

Speaking about her winning designs, Designer, Ms. Dhruva Jobanputra, Interior Design Graduate of Istituto Marangoni Mumbai & Milan campuses, says, “it was truly a phenomenal experience to work with Cocoon Fine Rugs in collaboration with Instituto Marangoni. The opportunity was very exciting and delightful to work on. The journey from ideation to the final design was exceptional, and witnessing the process evolve from the yarn to a finely crafted rug seems surreal. My designs depict a modern concept of Brutalism and Neo-futuristic Utopia, a blend of brutalism rigidness in soft colors making it magnificent every time you look at it.”