15 Minutes with Kyle Bunting
Author:Lindsey ShookKyle Bunting made a rousing impression on the design industry decades ago by solely designing colorful, highly creative rugs made of hide. A pioneer in his own right, Bunting homed in on a niche that has proven timeless. Here we chat with him about how he is innovating for the future, new collections and more.
–You have been in this business for over 20 years. What is the biggest change you have seen that has shifted how you conduct business? The more things change the more things stay the same. I would have thought that social media, the iPhone and the emergence of e-commerce would have dramatically changed the way we do business. And while it has in a way, more than anything else, relationships are still at the core of working with designers. Nothing matters more in my opinion than knowing firsthand what the designer is looking to achieve so that we can be a collaborator in that process and improve where we can.
–You are known for your hide rugs and wallcoverings. However, you just launched a new initiative to create your iconic designs in non-hide materials like wool and silk. Why did you decide to move in this direction? We’ve worked exclusively with hide for 23 years, and while we’ve done a lot of work, there were a lot of projects where hide wasn’t the right material for the job. What we realized was we missed out on an opportunity to create something with that designer. So we decided to convert our design portfolio into an exciting new medium because it allowed us the opportunity to do more of what we love: work with designers and contribute to their projects.
–Can you share more about the technology you developed to assist with the new production program? What we developed is an innovative process that is a reflection of what we have been doing for years—procure material in France, tan it in Italy and then bring it to Austin to produce the final piece. That is a proprietary process that allows us to create great designs with world-class materials. When we started developing our program for wool and silk we asked ourselves: Why can’t we mirror what we’re doing with hide? Now our team in Austin procures the world’s finest silks and the highest quality wool, dyes them to our specifications and designs the pattern. We then share this specification with our tufting partners in Nepal, and they take that product 80 percent of the way to finish and then package it up and return it to our team in Austin. From there we stretch it out and provide all of the finishing details necessary to make it an outstanding rug and make it the world’s only nonslip, no-pad-needed tufted carpet.
–Even though you are based in Texas you do quite a bit of business in California. How has the Golden State inspired your work? It’s a little-known fact that I started my business in San Francisco. I spent over a decade in the Bay Area and I’ve lived in Los Angeles. While people tend to think Texas and California are competitive, I find them to be complementary. Both have a rich history in design, culture and the arts and arguably, with all due respect to New York, have the highest concentrations of creative professionals in the world.
–I know you have a collection coming out with my favorite podcaster, Jennifer Welch, and have launched a few very cool collaborations with notable design leaders like Douglas Friedman. What is next? While I’m not one to kiss and tell, I’m really excited about a new collection we have debuting soon with New York-based sculptor Tom Fruin. We’re also knee-deep in development on a collection with Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips.
–If you could design a collection with any artist or designer, who would it be? I’m all in on Pablo Picasso. So many periods and points of view—what range and scale!
What is one thing your clients might not know about you? Very little. I’m an open book.
