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"I felt like taking a risk,” says designer, author, and lifestyle guru Athena Calderone, recalling the hunt for a rug to furnish her Long Island home. At the time, she was craving something outside her go-to neutral palette. Looking through Instagram, her eye settled upon the rusty hue of a Beni Rugs flat weave. A few DMs later, Calderone had not only snagged the floorcovering but set a collaboration into motion, the results of which are launching this fall. Titled Broken Symmetry, her debut collection for Beni includes a dozen high-pile rugs in warm, sun-faded hues—all handmade on vertical looms by Berber women in Morocco. “The yarns are hand-dyed and then washed, giving everything this element of imperfection and surprise,” says the designer. “I really leaned into that.” The partnership was a full-circle moment for Calderone, who credits a 2005 visit to Marrakech with an all-around relaxing of her celebrated personal style. The appreciation of texture and patina she developed there, mixed with cultural references to artist Agnes Martin and architect Luis Barragán, inspired loose checkerboards, simple geomet- rics, and subtle stripes, all of which complement the age-old artisanal processes. Says Calderone of her intuitive approach: “I would start with a pattern and then pull things away.” benirugs.com —Hannah Martin
