Rug Star MAGAZINE 02 - Intimacy Berlin | 120 Pillows

RUG STAR MAGAZINE 

INTIMACY BERLIN 

120 PILLOWS 

№ 02

SEE ME, HUG ME, LOVE ME 

Welcome everyone to the second issue of RUG STAR 

Magazine featuring INTIMACY BERLIN Volume 02 

and the 120 PILLOWS project. 

Only 5 short months ago in late August 2016, we 

published the first 10.000 copies of RUG STAR 

Magazine Volume 01. Still fresh and crispy I packed 

them up and started my annual autumn promotion 

tour; this year to TheRugShow in NY, The Shanghai 

Furniture Fair, the IDS in Vancouver and to The 

London Design Week. 

I felt blessed, with INTIMACY BERLIN. I had 

finally created the perfect communication tool 

to show how my rug designs bloom in real living 

situations and the magazine was the right frame to 

show these pictures. 

Back in Berlin I continued shooting our rugs in 

real-life living situations. We find all of the homes 

by requesting assistance from friends, so the 

homeowners are not paid for letting us photograph 

our rugs in their living space. Instead, we cook for 

them and teach them about the joy and love we have 

for this craftsmanship. So far all interiors have been 

exclusively shot by the Berlin-based photographer 

Michael Tewes. 

As of yesterday, 24 homes have been visited in the 

last 1.5 years, 166 of our rugs have been shot in the 

homes of my friends and we are grateful and happy 

to see that we have been able to establish a fresh 

and unique way of how to communicate the beauty 

and identity of hand knotted area rugs. In 2017 we 

will continue this project in Bergamo, Italy with my 

dear friend Michele Cobelli, in Portland, Oregon 

USA with our beloved Christiane Millinger and in 

Beijing, China with my buddy Ma Jin and his 

awesome Jambros team. 

Last but not least, I am more than excited to introduce 

to you our 120 PILLOWS project. 120 pillows, 

manufactured all by hand in Berlin, all knitted by 

my dear friend and design icon Claudia Skoda, all 

truly one of a kind textile sculptures with a clear 

message: 

SEE ME, HUG ME, LOVE ME. 

Jürgen Dahlmanns, 

founder and creative head of RUG STAR

INTIMACY BERLIN 02 001 

Orchid No. 01 

Blue 

H 650 Luxury Tuft 

in viscose, 

wool and silk available

002 RUG STAR MAGAZINE 

Orchid No. 02 

Black 


in viscose, 



DNA India Elephants 

Original 

hand knotted Tibetan weave 

30% finest silk

004 RUG STAR MAGAZINE 

NewClassic Tabriz Reverse 

EmperorYellow 

hand knotted Persian weave 

85 % finest silk


Tiger 

Original 


75 % finest silk 

Eden Two Monkeys 

Original 



Eden Deer Head 

Original 


30 % finest silk


FerahanSplash 

Turquoise 


30 % finest silk


IsfahanWoods 

Blue 


100 % finest silk


Koi No. 05 

SandyBeach 


in viscose, 



Delft Three Birds 

Yellow 



Damast Royal ECO 

OliveGreen, Neon GrassGreen 


40 % finest silk


Spot No. 02 

Olive&Mauve 


100 % finest silk


IsfahanWoods 

Strawberry 


30 % finest silk


Delft Thomas 

Copper 


100 % finest silk


NewClassic Tabriz 

Colourful on LightBlue Denim 

H 650 Luxury Tuft


NewClassic Kerman Reverse 

LightPink 


85 % finest silk


Rajasthan ZeroPile No. 01 Runner 

ExEyeCandyPink 


65 % finest silk


IsfahanBlock 

MidNightBlue Copper 


30 % finest silk


Orchid No. 01 

White 


in viscose, 



IsfahanWoods 

SoftBlue 


30 % finest silk

INTIMACY BERLIN 02 019

020 RUG STAR MAGAZINE 

Splash Lines No. 02 

AllNatural on LightBlue 


70 % finest silk

INTIMACY BERLIN 02 021 

NewClassic Kava Bagh Reverse 

EmperorYellow 


85 % finest silk


Folding Sky No. 03 

Multi CyanCopper 


100 % finest silk


Lines No. 01 

Original 


35 % finest silk


Spot No. 01 

SoftSandySilk 


100 % finest silk


Open Up Your Heart 

Original 


15 % finest silk


1956 No. 02 

Original 


65 % finest silk


Wasteland 

Nietzsche II 


30 % finest silk


Eden Dragonfly 

Original 


25 % finest silk


120 PILLOWS 

SEE ME_ HUG ME_ LOVE ME 

120 truly one of a kind pillows_ all hand made in 

Berlin_ all knitted by the design icon Claudia Skoda 

herself exclusively for Rug Star_ all as a truly one of 

a kind textile sculpture. 

SIZES 

TALL_ 50 cm x 70 cm 

GRANDE_ 60 cm x 90 cm 

VENTI_ 65 cm x 100 cm 

FILLING 

FEATHERS_ single filled (HUG ME) 

or double filled (SEE ME) 

ANTI ALLERGIC 

PLAYLIST 

We offer the service PLAYLIST to design and produce 

a truly one of a kind set of pillows matching each individual 

interior _ an extraordinary service we offer 

to all our traders and interior designers_ the order 

has to be a minimum set of 6 pillows_ we only need 

your personal PLAYLIST_ a compilation the once 

you love most out of the 120 and we start our work to 

create a unique new set of truly one of a kind textile 

sculptures for you. 

Big City No. 02 

60 cm x 90 cm


PLAYLIST 01_ 12 of 120 

Mama Whale No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Das ist Laub No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Gingko No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Kaviar No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Schwefel No. 02 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Exit No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Arp No. 03 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Die Fliege No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Mörtel No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Uranga No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Birch No. 04 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Banner No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm

PLAYLIST 02_ 12 of 120 

031 

Popeye No. 01 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Rooster Talk No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Big City No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Alice No. 01 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Wissen No. 01 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Luis XIV No. 02 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Storm & Roses No. 01 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Stone Garden No. 02 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Kraal No. 02 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Monkey No. 02 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Fox In Forest No. 02 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Delft No. 03 

65 cm x 100 cm


PLAYLIST 03_ 12 of 120 

Hey Lula No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Relief No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Taxi No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Monkey No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Bush On Fire No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Schwefel No. 04 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Hôô Hôô Hôô No. 02 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Mushroom No. 01 

65 cm x 100 cm 

Mörtel No. 02 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Uranga No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Snail Pod No. 02 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Rooster Talk No. 02 

65 cm x 100 cm



Multi CyanCopperOrange 


100 % finest silk


A Day and a Kite No. 03 

Mauve 


100 % finest silk



Multi CyanCopperOrange 


100 % finest silk


Koi No. 05 

BondiBlack 


in viscose, 



Circle No. 03 

B&W 



Circle No. 01 

B&W 


50 % finest silk


Rajasthan ZeroPile No. 01 

ExElectricBlue 


65 % finest silk


Eden Clara 

Original 


15 % finest silk


Embrace Me, Skin of Light No. 04 

Runner 


40 % finest silk


Sacred ECO No. 05 

Cream on DarkGreyMauve 



Sacred No. 01 

Original 


40 % finest silk


Koi No. 05 

Pool 


in viscose, 



Feathers Mr. Big 

Pastel 1 


30 % finest silk


NewClassic Teheran 

MidNightBlue 


65 % finest silk



ExDeepPurple 




CreamEyeCandyPink 


100 % finest silk


Aubusson No. 04 

Original 


70 % finest silk


Mameluk 

DeepPurple 


70 % finest silk


Pine Garden Reverse 

LightPink 



NewClassic Teheran Reverse 

LightBlue 


85 % finest silk


Pine Garden Reverse 

Charcoal 


85 % finest silk


Rajasthan No. 13 

ElectricBlue on NaturalGrey 


65 % finest silk


NewClassic Kava Bagh 

AppleGreen on NaturalGrey 


65 % finest silk


Splash No. 01 

AllNatural Pink 


70 % finest silk


Splash No. 5C 

AllNatural Blue 


70 % finest silk


Block No. 03 

Pink on DarkGrey 



Spot No. 05 

Copper & Mauve 


100 % finest silk


Black No. 01 

B&W 


100 % finest silk


Orchid No. 01 

White 

H 650 Luxury Tuft

INTIMACY BERLIN 02 

057 

Splash No. 04 

Original 


15 % finest silk


Block No. 04 

SilverGrey 


100 % finest silk

INTIMACY BERLIN 02 059


IsfahanWoods 

MultiColor 


30 % finest silk


Eden Grasshopper 

GreyBlue 


25 % finest silk


Delft Three Apples 

Peach 


100 % finest silk


NewClassic Teheran 

Colourful on Copper Denim 


in viscose, 


064 RUG STAR MAGAZINE


Koi No. 02 

Blue on MidNightBlue 


50 % finest silk


NewClassic Tabriz 

Colourful on Copper Denim 


in viscose, 



FerahanSplash 

Turquoise 


100 % finest silk

068 

RUG STAR MAGAZINE 

Mono No. 07 

OldRose on LightSilver 


100 % finest silk


Dresden 

Brown 


in viscose, 



NewClassic Mughal 

Colourful on Purple Denim 


in viscose, 



NewClassic Kerman Reverse 

EmperorYellow 


85 % finest silk


NewClassic Mughal Reverse 

EmperorYellow 


85 % finest silk


Splash No. 06 

AllNatural LightBlue 


70 % finest silk

074 RUG STAR MAGAZINE


SEE ME, LOVE ME, HUG ME 

by Roxana Florina Popa, publisher of the 

online magazine Customers4Fashion. 

We are all looking for sources of life and designers 

who can truly generate life into their products are 

few. This is a challenge that only the brightest and 

the most ingenious can make it shine. 

Besides beauty, playfullness and harmony, 

CLAUDIA SKODA and JÜRGEN DAHLMANNS 

meant to bring to the world creations that breathe 

and spread energy and love around them. 

Claudia Skoda, the famous and influential knitwear 

designer from Berlin and Jürgen Dahlmanns, the 

founder of Rug Star – the global design carpet label 

born in Berlin and the winner of numerous prizes at 

the Domotex Fair, decided to intersect their valuable 

experiences in fashion and interior design in order to 

create for the home textile area. Their first creation 

is what they call “a playlist” of 120 pillows. The two 

resourceful designers are also very good friends in 

real life. 

Claudia Skoda, who founded her fashion label in 

1975, has remained curious and creative in the fashion 

field for over 40 years. Young designers orient 

themselves based on her fashion innovations and they 

highly value her advice. 

Made by the hands of Claudia Skoda, the pillows are 

in reality the result of life-time experimentation with 

yarn and unique knitting techniques. Patterns such as 

“Kaviar“, “Spa“, “Mama Whale“, “This Way“ and 

“Exit” to a bright sunlight, “Dress well” and “Satellite 

City” make you fall in love with their lightness, 

sunny mood and good humour. They were imagined 

to immediately uplift the atmosphere of your house 

and bring fresh modernity to any interior setting. 

Their colour vibration is where the two designers 

come very close in the creative process.


Interview with the designers CLAUDIA SKODA 

and JÜRGEN DAHLMANNS 

Roxana Florina Popa: Looking at your invitation on Facebook, 

seeing pillows flying up in the air and the number 120, 

made me think of Nena’s song “99 Luftballons” and of children’s 

pillow fights. What is the spirit of this event in Berlin? 

Jürgen Dahlmanns: Our 120 PILLOWS project is a celebration 

in diversity, beauty, love and friendship. So you are 

right, our first picture to introduce our cooperation has this 

private emotion of joy and it reflects our working method to 

be a happening and a laboratory to find beauty. 

I met Claudia Skoda 15 years ago when I opened my first 

shop in Berlin Mitte. My work people know by now under 

the brand name RUG STAR. We have been neighbours in the 

beginning and we developed a deep friendship over the last 

15 years. 

JD: We have something in common; most of our work can be 

reflected as our diary. We both express ourselves with the patterns 

and the colour combinations we use on a textile surface. 

I think our understanding of the use of colours for particular 

designs is very close; here is the deeper connection in the 

profession. 

Stream No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm 

Bamboo No. 02 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Claudia is executing this for 40 years already in fashion and 

I have been executing this for 15 years in interior design, 

which is my hand-knotted rugs area. 

My goal is to extend my work, which at the moment is only 

concentrated on floor covering, also into the fields of home 

textiles. On the other side, Claudia has reached a point in 

her life where she wants her pattern language to be part of 

interior and architecture, too, since her patterns always had 

a strong architectural layer. 

So, in April this year, I offered her to start an open project, 

where we do not consider the final result. Of course, the item 

“pillow” was first set, but I denied any boundaries or goals in 

terms of volume, price calculation, distribution structure or 

final position on the market. I only wanted her to start talking 

with her knitting texture on field, so that we can later show 

it in the interior design. Slowly, we invented the pillow sizes: 

50 cm x 70 cm, 60 cm x 90 cm and 65 cm x 100 cm. 

Birchman No. 01 

60 cm x 90 cm 

Claudia is my raw model, not only in her work, but also in her 

positive reflection and attitude in daily live. We are two different 

generations, I get 50 soon and Claudia is one generation 

ahead. But looking at her, I mostly think I am the older one. 

Her mind is vibrant, open and colourful and always a step 

more progressive than mine. Imagine this: I always thought 

that my creative mind is a stormy river, but beside Claudia 

it appears tender and smooth, more a summer sunny forest 

lake. 

RFP: The 120 Pillows event is a fruit of your friendship. How 

did friends and designers CLAUDIA SKODA and JÜRGEN 

DAHLMANSS work together on this project? 

In a second step, we set up a structure to manufacture all in 

Berlin, so it is a truly handmade Berlin product. Only in the 

last 8 weeks, have we understood the final product, made the 

first costs calculation and considered to invent a distribution 

structure according to these facts. We understood that we had 

created textile sculptures with a one-of-a-kind attitude. In the 

next step,we want to create a service for interior designers to 

make “Playlists” of pillows that we will especially design for 

each living situation. 

RFP: In pupils’ folklore, putting the school book under the 

pillow at night helped them know the lessons the next day before 

the teacher; nowadays’ political figures are offered armchairs 

equipped with pillows in TV talks; in Oriental countries, 

pillows decorated rich people’s houses and the more 

pillows they had, the more they were seen as generous; deep 

confessions are easily made around a pillow talk; they even 

replace a remote beloved person. 

What kind of magic do Claudia Skoda’s pillows do?


JD: I tested some of the pillows on my sofa lately and I can 

tell you that the process of the pillows works like this: 

SEE ME, HUG ME AND LOVE ME. 

They have their own strong personality, but are soft and tender. 

To female friends with man trouble, I recommend a couple 

of the big size pillows as a good option for the next cold 

winter months ahead. 

Claudia Skoda: As I wanted to work not only with traditional 

knitting and handcraft, Jürgen and I agreed on knitting 

pictures for this first project. They are knitted on the knitting 

machine on flatbed Jacquard. The challenge consisted most 

of all in the concept I designed based on my long experience 

in fashion. The pillow is the ideal medium to express my patterns 

and imagery which in fashion can be applied only to a 

limited extent. Not every person accepts this visual vocabulary 

on his or her own body, but they accept it in their homes. 

80% of the pillows are made of high-tech cotton yarn with a 

nylon thread. I worked on this pillows project from January 

until October, including checks in between. 

RFP: What inspired your pillow patterns? 

Reflecting on the magic: there is another personality in our 

pillows different from what you normally find on the pillows 

market. They have been invented in another attitude, so their 

appearance is different from other products. 

It is already my philosophy – that I build and reflect in my 

rugs – that the production process is part of the vibration of 

the product: 

If you only think about producing items to be consumed, you 

forget to give them a soul. If you think about product development 

with the purpose to match a price point, you forget the 

soul. If you ask different questions, they will lead you to different 

answers. 

This is the magic we have in the pillows, we believe in adding 

soul into our products due to how we work. 

RFP: What kind of knitting technique did you choose and 

why? What materials are the pillows made of? How long does 

it take to make 120 pillows? Which were the essential tools in 

their creation? 

Mushroom No. 02 

60 cm x 90 cm 

CS: Fashion, music, art and unseen pattern on air. 

RFP: Rug Star has always been very innovative in weaving 

techniques and materials. 2016 saw hand-tufted creations 

complementing the very well known hand-knotted Tibetan 

and Persian weave. 

What does it mean for a business to introduce a new technique 

in terms of time and arriving at a successful innovation? 

What caused this new direction? Which are the advantages 

that hand-tufting offers? 

JD: In the first 7 years of my work with Rug Star, I was exclusively 

working in the hand-knotted Tibetan area rug. After 

7 years of innovation, I felt confident to add a new product 

and so, for the next 7 years I started innovating the Persian 

hand-knotted rug. It might be my cycles, because for the next 

7 years I started with the tuft technique. 

Chaos No. 02 

65 cm x 100 cm 

It is not a hand-knotted rug, as the dimension of the parallel 

process of weaving and knotting is missing. In the product 

category of tuft, a little gun is shooting the fibre into an exciting 

fabric, where the outlines have been drawn and the fields 

are slowly filled with different colours, material and mixtures. 

As an architect, I always understood the architectural dimension 

of rugs. Thanks to the hand-knotted rug, we established 

a beautiful system to make customised productions for our 

clients all over the world. 

The project business sometimes requests bigger volume or 

shorter delivery times, for example, for high-end hotels. ››


Here, the hand-knotted rug of the quality we are producing 

has no real market and I was never interested 

in quick and cheap hand-knotted rugs. 

The tuft is an excellent product to fit into this request 

and I am happy that we managed already in such 

a short time to set up an amazing collection in tuft 

which we will launch in January 2017 in Hannover 

at the Domotex Fair. 

RFP: Do you consider taking distance online orders 

from clients who are not in Berlin on the occasion of 

the “120 Pillows” Event on the 4th of December? 

JD: We managed to build up a distribution system in 

30 countries for our customised rugs. I am very positive 

that we will manage in the long term the goal to 

offer our truly unique pillows in the same way. I have 

already requests from the Middle East, China and the 

USA. We start setting up the next structure soon and I 

am very curious where it will lead us to. 

Customers4Fashion is a communication channel 

promoting confidential design & art and luxury 

pieces to highly refined and affluent clientele. Thank 

you, Roxanna, for benig such an awesome friend and 

promoter of my work! 

Birch Dance No. 01 

50 cm x 70 cm


Eden Red Flower 

Original 


15 % finest silk


RUG STAR 

by Jürgen Dahlmanns 

Copyrights 2017 | Jürgen Dahlmanns | www.rugstar.com

RUG STAR SHOWROOMS 

RUG STAR BERLIN 

Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 27 

10178 Berlin | Germany 

Fon: + 49 (0)30 30 87 54 47 

Mail: info@rugstar.com 

www.rugstar.com 

RUG STAR AUGSBURG 

Zeuggasse 5 

86150 Augsburg | Germany 

Fon: +49 (0)821 455 06 30 

Mail: augsburg@rugstar.com 

www.rugstar-augsburg.de 

RUG STAR STUTTGART 

Am Schillerplatz 4 

71522 Backnang | Germany 

Fon: +49 (0)7191 911 2226 

Mail: kontakt@sorgcarpet.de 

www.rugstar-stuttgart.de 

RUG STAR ZÜRICH 

Zweierstrasse 25 

8004 Zürich | Switzerland 

Fon: +41 44 450 31 51 

Mail: zuerich@rugstar.ch 

RUG STAR VIENNA 

Dorotheergasse 5 

1010 Wien | Austria 

Fon: +43 664 325 70 09 

Mail: omar@adil-besim.at 

Photo by Pooya Nabei 

RUG STAR ITALIA 

Via Sant’Orsola 10 

24122 Bergamo | Italy 

Fon:+39 035222234 

Mail: michele@rugstar.it 

RUG STAR VANCOUVER 

200-495 Railway St. 

Vancouver, BC V6A 1A7 | Canada 

Fon: +1604 708 0170 

Mail: meghan@jmrepublic.com

Desire became addiction, right now I can say I am a 100% RUG ADDICT. 

www.rugstar.com

Rug Star MAGAZINE 02 - Intimacy Berlin | 120 Pillows

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