In the myth of Shangri-La, travelers wandering through snowy mountains suddenly stumble into a beautiful and exotic paradise. While it might be a bit of a stretch, walking into the Davies Reid rug store in Kimball Junction this winter has a similar effect.
Filled with treasures from Central Asia, Davies Reid specializes in carrying exotic and beautiful items. Store founders Terry Reid and Sharon Davies are self-described “traveling hippies” who in their sojourns around the world stumbled upon Afghan refugees in Pakistani refugee camps struggling to preserve their culture and make cheap rugs to sell.
Amazed at the potential within these weavers and disgusted to be seeing the demise of their ancient craft, Reid and Davies started a collective called the Turkman Weaving Project. Reid set up a shop in the corner of a parking lot and employed the weavers in making wool rugs for him to sell in America. Over time, he convinced them to return to their roots and use only hand-harvested vegetable dyes.
Today, the weavers make about three times the average local wage and five Davies Reid stores can be found across the Mountain West and Hawaii.
The colors and designs of the rugs are an astonishingly good fit for contemporary Western décor. The company has adopted the catch phrase: Rugs made for the American West.
Terry Reid in a telephone interview said the rugs and other items imported from Central Asia and India are such a good fit for this area because most rug importers are in New York City and Hamburg, Germany. They understand their clients and buy rugs that compliment the décor in those cultures.
“They’re big-city people and they relate to a much more formal environment,” he said. “In the West, it has a lot to do with hand-made things, certain designs, hand-made qualities.”
Coming from the Camas Valley in Idaho and seeing similarities between the Afghan rugs and Navajo rugs, Reid said it makes sense to have the people there making rugs that fit a Western and Southwest décor.
“Whether you’re a nomad in Central Asia or a Navajo in Arizona you’re going to have more in common with each other than others in your own country who are city dwellers,” he said.
Both peoples are inspired by the ground, the sky, clouds and trees. And whereas contemporary Navajo weavers have modernized, the Afghans still make everything by hand using totally organic materials, he said.
Park City is a natural extension for the company which has stores in Ketchum, Idaho and Jackson Hole, Wyo. But the company can grow only as fast as the weavers can make the rugs. As a manufacturer and a retailer, Davies Reid has a limited supply. It can guarantee that its rugs are found nowhere else, but it takes four months to create a good-sized piece, he said.
Cathy Newbern manages the store in the Silver Mountain building on the north end of Kimball Junction.
“The whole place is just something to see,” she said.
Newbern is a little biased. She designed the interior. She met Davies and Reid while working as an interior designer in Jackson Hole and convinced them to let her manage a Park City location.
Despite her bias, she’s right. The store is almost like a curiosity shoppe with something beautiful to see every few inches. Decoratively carved teak columns from India, turquoise jewelry from Tibet, textiles from Pakistan, and coffee tables made from former Indian bed frames are everywhere.
“There’s always something to see, feel and touch when you come in,” she said. “And there’s something for everybody.”
With antique wood and copper barrels, pottery, statues, pillows, masks and even stamped-leather sketch books, the store is as much about its accessories as its rugs.
Rob Smith, residential division manager for design company CCG Howells in Salt Lake City, said he loves the store’s diversity and unique products.
“They have a great rug line, something you don’t see around here. They have things I can’t find anywhere else around and I love the story behind it where the rugs are made and how they’re made,” he said.
He said he feels he gets a lot for his money after learning the story of the Turkman Weaving Project.
Newbern’s skills as a designer also make her well-equipped to help customers find what they’re looking for.
“It’s about identifying the right rug for the right customer to go in the right space,” Newbern said. “(Contemporary Western design) is about bringing what views we have of the outside into the inside and meshing them together.”
Davies Reid: Rugs Made for the American West
1526 Ute Blvd. #108
645-7847