How an American transformed Chinese rug making in early 1900s with clean designs and work conditions

After arriving in Beijing as a missionary, Helen Fette introduced art deco carpets and safer, sanitary labour standards to revolutionise the Chinese rug trade

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A rug designed for Fette-Li by Orre Nobles.

Paul French

Published: 6:15pm, 11 Feb 2023Updated: 11:15am, 12 Feb 2023

At the turn of the 20th century, any discerning American home whose inhabitants displayed “taste” had an Oriental rug, invariably a Chinese one.

But by the late 1920s, tastes were evolving and, while there was still a great appreciation for traditional patterns and the skilled weaving of Chinese pieces, there rose a desire for rugs that incorporated the new vogue for abstract designs and more vibrant colours.

The art deco style was popularised largely as the result of the highly influential 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, in Paris, and it became aesthetically dominant in everything from architecture and furniture to jewellery and rug design.

One Chinese company sought to assimilate these two desires, marrying traditionally woven carpets with new avant garde designs – the Fette-Li Rug Company of Beijing and Tianjin.

A Fette-Li rug from around 1925. Fette-Li became known in the 1920s and ’30s for its traditionally woven rugs with avant garde designs.

Founded in 1921, the firm was a coming together of a highly skilled rug manufacturer – Li Mengshu – and an American entrepreneur living in Beijing, Helen Fette.

As well as exporting rugs to the United States, Fette introduced art deco designs to catch the eye of customers in the US and modern Chinese cities such as Shanghai. Fette and Li used advanced dyes, insisting, too, that Fette-Li be a model workplace in an industry plagued with bad, sometimes fatal working conditions.