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One to Watch: Interior Designer Little Wing Lee and Her Growing Rug Collection

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One to Watch: Interior Designer Little Wing Lee and Her Growing Rug Collection

June 3, 2024

Little Wing Lee is an interior designer who wears many hats. She runs her own Brooklyn studio, Studio & Projects, and recently also served as the Ace Hotel/Atelier Ace creative director. And she’s the founder of Black Folks in Design (BFiD), a network that provides support for Black designers and showcases their work.

Little Wing also likes to collaborate with fellow creatives. She just launched a four-piece collection of sconces and flush mount designs with indie New York lighting company RBW. And while working on rug designs for the Ace group, she got to know the team at Odabashian, in Mexico City, a company specializing in artisanal floor coverings since 1921. They enlisted her to start making her own rugs with them. Here’s the capsule collection—more to come.

Photography by Kelly Marshall, courtesy of Studio & Projects.

a mood board for studio & project&#8\2\17;s first rug, the okra design, 17
Above: A mood board for Studio & Project’s first rug, the Okra design, showing stalks as well as a cross-section of pods: “Inspiration came from our appreciation for the variety of plants brought from West Africa to the United States that are now thought of as American staples,” writes Little Wing.
&#8\2\20;the pattern illustrates the form and beauty of the okra plant, ref 18
Above: “The pattern illustrates the form and beauty of the okra plant, reflecting both the lines of the seed pods and their interior sections, which have an unexpected floral quality,” says Little Wing of her first rug  design, the Okra Rug.
the okra rug is handmade by odabashian&#8\2\17;s weavers in india of hand s 19
Above: The Okra rug is handmade by Odabashian’s weavers in India of hand-spun New Zealand wool, and available in four sizes. It was exhibited in Spotlight, the first Black Folks in Design show, and, like all the rugs, is available on request from Studio & Projects.
little wing&#8\2\17;s first name came from a jimi hendrix song: &#8\2\2 20
Above: Little Wing’s first name came from a Jimi Hendrix song: “my parents liked the Native American/African American imagery—one of my great grandmothers was Native American.” She’s shown here with her Echoic I rug.

Prior to her career in design, Little Wing worked in documentary television and film. She has a master’s degree in interior design from Pratt Institute, studied landscape architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and got her start working for SOM and Rockwell Group. Photograph by Kelly Marshall.

echoic i was developed from &#8\2\20;design explorations of juxtaposed rigi 21
Above: Echoic I was developed from “design explorations of juxtaposed rigid and organic grids, asymmetric rhythms, and natural forms.” It’s made of hand-spun New Zealand wool and is manufactured by Odabashian to order.
like echoic i, echoic ii was inspired by, among other things, west african and  22
Above: Like Echoic I, Echoic II was inspired by, among other things, West African and African American textiles and the work of Ruth Asawa.  For more pricing and other details, write to [email protected].

Little Wing reports that Echoic III and Striae I, two new rugs made by Odabashian, will be introduced early this fall—watch for the announcement @studio.and.projects.

More standout rugs:

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