The business has progressed through several iterations over the years. Its origins born of a general business SPICE ISLAND operating in Southsea, Portsmouth, with a shop opening in 1971/72 selling oriental textiles and crafts, along with a business partner dealing in antique costume and commercial artefacts. The oriental side of the business being influenced from living in India and Afghanistan 1967-69.
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SPICE ISLAND was acquired in its entirety from the partner in 1974 and sold as a going concern. This funded a specialism dealing in antique oriental rugs, moving premises briefly elsewhere in Portsmouth in 1975 to a dedicated oriental rug gallery as CLIVE ROGERS ORIENTAL RUGS.
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Thence a move to Brighton, Sussex in 1976 with a gallery studio and onto working from a historic home within the Regency conservation zone of Brunswick Town, bordering the seafront.
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Coinciding with the arrival of family life, a London premises was leased in 1985-1989 at 50 South Molton Street, Mayfair, London. During this time a property in Istanbul was acquired along with a developing interest in making new rugs in Turkey - something influenced by the Dobag project, a UNESCO funded venture to re-establish natural dyes in the making of traditional Turkish rugs. Rather than produce traditional designs, the brand CRORMAC (CLIVE ROGERS ORIENTAL RUGS MODERNIST ANATOLIAN CARPETS) was created to showcase the very best of contemporary designs in natural dyes and top quality hand-spun wool. The project, although massively influential and an enormous trailblazing success, fell victim to many cheaply made imitations in Turkey and elsewhere. Under capitalisation made it impossible to protect the brand internationally, forcing closure of production in 1990... henceforth today we are drowning in such goods!
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In 1996, family and business moved to a large William IV / Victorian country house and grounds in the Thames-side village of Wraysbury, between Heathrow Airport and Windsor. The house had stables and outbuildings, which were converted to workshops and an entirely new studio built to the design of a Sussex barn, with novel architectural features, such as overhead photography capabilities, a sunken carpet bath and raised office mezzanine. Whilst residing there, Saturday mornings were taken up working in the Admiral Vernon building on the famous Portobello Road market in Notting Hill, London.
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Twenty years on in 2016/17, the business moved to its present location, the former wool-cloth weaving town of Stroud, Gloucestershire in the valleys of the West Cotswolds, with a studio sitting aside the Thames & Severn Canal. When since, actively making new carpets in Turkey has revived and thrived, supplying bespoke pieces to customer orders, as well as continuing with supplying antique carpets and textiles.
