Loom Town

Rug maker Jan Kath on weaving craft and contemporary design in Kathmandu.

- Rosa Bertoli

Kathmandu is a city close to rug producer Jan Kath’s heart. He learned how to drive on the maze-like, unpaved streets of the Nepalese capital, having moved there from his native Germany when he was 20. He has links to the Hindu temple of Pashupatinath, where he spent time alongside local priests, and to the area surrounding the stupa of Boudhanath, where Tibetan refugees settled in the 1950s, bringing rug-making traditions to the area. Most importantly, it’s in Kathmandu that Kath founded his eponymous company, now one of the most innovative and well-regarded luxury rug brands in the world and one that has helped redefine the industry.

‘When I look back at the last 20 years, most of my successes started in Kathmandu,’ says Kath. His brand’s rug production now also extends to India, Turkey, Thailand and Morocco, but it’s in Kathmandu that he feels most strongly connected to the craft.

Kath grew up in the industrial German city of Bochum and travelled to Nepal in the early 1990s after spending a few years in India, working as part of a collective that organised techno parties. When he grew tired of that scene, he moved on to Kathmandu,inspired by the stories of his family (who were rug importers in Germany and had travelled there in the 1970s) and of his former school teacher (a hippie sculptor with a passion for the city). But it was a chance encounter there with a family friend who operated in the rug trade that drew Kath into the industry. ‘I wasn’t planning to stay in Kathmandu,’ he explains, ‘but to cut a long story short, three weeks later, I was this guy’s man on the ground here. After two years, he asked me if I wanted to take over the factory, as he wanted to retire.’ With the help of his father, Kath launched his rug company.