Macao carries a story before it carries a pattern: the paper shawl Isabelle de Borchgrave placed on a mannequin one day, the gesture that began her Frida Kahlo costume work, itself part of a series of a dozen colourless dresses. For the floor it becomes a piece of traditional Wilton weaving, made in France at Aubusson. The drama of the draped scarf survives the change of scale, and the weave gives it the settled, permanent quality a rug ought to have.
