The Loloi family calls Dallas home, but a passion for textiles often calls them to travel around the world. Cyrus Loloi, second-generation principal involved in the family businesses, wants to be sure local Dallas designers have access to all the beautiful textiles that his father, Amir, and he and his brother, Steven, source globally. That’s why the Loloi family launched Loloi Found & Made, a company where artisans use select antique rugs and textiles and turn them into one-of-a-kind wall art and specialty vintage rugs and pillows.
The Loloi name is inextricably linked to textiles. Amir founded Loloi Rugs in 2004 in Dallas after working in and learning about textiles, sales, merchandising and product development beginning at age 23. “He has always enjoyed the process of sourcing and designing great products and visits India, Egypt, China and Turkey to work side by side with our manufacturing partners to create exciting new products,” says Cyrus Loloi. Today, Loloi Rugs often collaborates with designers and celebrities to continue bringing new merchandise to market, with showrooms available across the nation.
With such a successful business as Loloi Rugs, why step out of the comfort zone to launch Loloi Found & Made? “The Loloi family wanted to create a space that was inviting to local designers,” Loloi says. “We live, work, design and ship products from Dallas, and it just felt right to establish a local presence for designers and architects in the heart of the Dallas Design District.”
It has all been created from an appreciation and love for textiles, and Loloi says he and his brother have grown to share their father’s passion for fine rugs and textile-based art. The design team loves “looking for needles in haystacks” to find those rare, vintage rugs and textiles to bring back to their customers at Loloi Found & Made. The treasure hunt turns up finds that designers source for their homeowner-clients who are looking for something unique that can’t be found in anyone else’s home. “The hunt for beautiful, well-aged, exclusive products that we can offer our customers at a good value is one of the most exciting parts of what we do,” Loloi says. “We’re continuously looking for new items, and when we find them, we buy them on the spot and ship them here to Dallas.”
The fun of turning unique finds into wall art has an eco-friendly angle. In some cases where vintage rugs have a small, damaged portion, Found & Made artisans turn the remainder of the rug into museum-level, framed textile artwork, saving the entire rug from ending up in a landfill. “Our artists are always experimenting with textiles and creating art. We like to be creative and repurpose handmade textiles that otherwise would go to waste,” Loloi says. “We also think about what could be by looking past flaws that happen naturally with age and reimagining the art it can become to live its next life.”
The walls of the showroom are filled with treasures such as Colombian art, African textiles, Asian silks and Turkish rugs, all of which are in meticulously crafted frames, with 150 in-stock options. “When we see something beautiful, we just know it, whether it’s unique in color, design details or the back story, and usually it’s a combination of all three,” Loloi says.
Since the Loloi family created Found & Made with Dallas designers in mind, it is important that designers visiting the showroom have an experience. “It’s mainly a way to meet clients where they are—in the Dallas Design District—and give them an incredible shopping experience in an inspiring space. We love it when designers visit us and bring their clients,” Loloi says. He connects designers’ and architects’ clients with the right artwork by opening a dialogue to discover their needs: Do they want an unframed textile for a main room to absorb sound for improved acoustics, or do they need a showpiece above the mantel? “We share as much about a piece’s history as we can, like its origin and what it was originally designed for,” he adds.
The Lolois are taking the destination showroom concept one step further by helping the community craft its own experiences through hosting events in the 15,000-square-foot showroom. Available for private parties, wedding receptions and corporate events, the space has been a hit with the event planners who have used it thus far. “It all started with an event we hosted for interior designers. It was so much fun, we thought we might as well carry it on,” says Loloi. The showroom space is large enough to accommodate 150 people for a cocktail party and 100 people for a seated dinner.
Since Dallas is home to the largest arts district nationwide, it is filled with residents who appreciate the traditional beauty and intricacies of fine art. The sprawling Bishop Arts District, which is full of boutiques, restaurants and art galleries, is just a short car ride away from the Dallas Design District that houses Loloi Found & Made, and along with other design showrooms and art galleries, the destination is a dream for designers who are looking for special finds for their clients.
The Lolois will continue doing what they love—traveling around the world and finding rich textile treasures to share with their global customers as part of what now has become a legacy business for the family. They’ll also continue a special emphasis on providing local designers with up close looks at the bounty of found art and vintage rugs created from the far-flung masterpieces brought back home to Dallas. Whether a new rug from Loloi Rugs or a vintage textile or framed artifact from Loloi Found & Made, the family and design team behind both companies use centuries-old craftsmanship and materials to design exquisite elements for today’s homes. Those who take advantage of the event space in the showroom will find the same passion for products is shared with curated events at Loloi Found & Made. *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and fine art.
