At Karastan, we've been creating some of the world's most beautiful rugs for almost three-quarters of a century now. Yet, ever since April 8, 1928, when the first Karastan rug came off the loom at 2:02 p.m., we've never once stopped getting excited about our dual roles as leader in both manufacturing and interior design innovations.

Recognizing the value of reproducing highly fashionable hand-knotted rugs from Ancient Persia and the Orient, Marshall Field & Company had, starting in 1921, devoted a carpet mill in Leaksville, North Carolina to the creation of Oriental reproductions. It wasn't until later, however, that a New England inventor, Eugene Clark, was able to rebuild one of those old looms into the Karastan version still in use today.

The Karastan Axminster loom was the first power loom to produce a rug with a soft back that would show the pile yarns through the back just like the hand-woven originals from the Orient. Even so, it was only after the perfection of non-fading dyestuffs and a special "lustre wash," giving the rugs the realistic highlights and mellowness of the Oriental originals, that Karastan was born.