The luxury carpet revolution Fort Street Studio in Hong Kong launched, and the two American painters behind its vivid, arty designs

In 1993, Brad Davis and Janis Provisor were struck by the idea of making carpets that looked like paintings. Three years later they launched their first designs

The pair recall their years in Hangzhou and Hong Kong, and explain that Fort Street Studio was named after the North Point street in which they lived

Reading Time:4 minutes

This Mid-Levels flat in Hong Kong features a Fort Street Studio carpet. The carpet is among many featured in Fort Street Studio’s book, A Tale of Warp and Weft. Photo: John Butlin

Published: 12:15pm, 8 Apr 2021Updated: 12:15pm, 8 Apr 2021

It has been nearly three decades since American painters Brad Davis and Janis Provisor pivoted to an entirely new medium: carpets. That unexpected journey began in 1993, when the couple was already well known in the art world.

The pair had just moved to Hangzhou in eastern China to set up a woodblock studio when they were struck by the idea of making a carpet that looked like a watercolour painting.

Hangzhou is the centre of China’s silk industry, but at first they were told it would be too difficult to weave the kind of delicate colour blends they were looking for. So they developed a system that converted their patterns into pixels with the help of Photoshop, which had arrived just a few years earlier.

It took another three years to translate those painterly patterns into silk carpets that could be woven by hand, but in 1996, they were able to launch their first seven designs. The next year, Provisor and Davis opened a showroom and named it Fort Street Studio, after the street in North Point, Hong Kong, they were living in at the time.

It has been nearly three decades since Brad Davis and Janis Provisor pivoted to an entirely new medium: carpets. Photo: Jonathan Leijonhufvud

Fast forward 25 years, and Fort Street Studio stands out for its vivid carpets, which helped revolutionise an industry that had been doing things the same way for centuries. To mark the occasion, the septuagenarian couple have come out with a lushly illustrated book, A Tale of Warp and Weft, published by Rizzoli, that documents the story behind their studio in essays, interviews and photos.