There are designers who treat carpet as a floor covering, and there are those who treat it as a canvas. The baron himself always belonged to the second category — and the Floræ Folium series by Tai Pingpresented at Milan Design Week 2026, is the clearest evidence yet of what this belief looks like when given space to fully unfold.
For the French designer—whose work moves steadily between art and design, questioning the utility of everyday objects while simultaneously exalting their presence—the fabric surface has long been a preferred terrain for floral displays.
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
©Tai Ping
Fifteen years of creative dialogue with Hong Kong-based carpet maker Tai Ping has shaped a body of work that takes this intuition seriously. The latest chapter of this collaboration is now visible from April 20th at the Tai Ping showroom in Milan in Piazza San Simpliciano.
The collection is based on Flower leavesan experimental trio of rugs from 2022 that explored the visual effect of reshaping using more than a hundred colors – a work that debuted at that year’s Fuorisalone before traveling the world. Where this work was a concentrated experiment, the Series is its full extension: ten pieces, multiple forms (square, rectangular, circular), each bearing a subtle Latin name paired with a color. Floras Natural, Corolla Vivid, Live flowers, Ramosa Vivid, Stamen Cirrus, Jade vegetable, Horseshoe Natural, Cirrus Petals, Floras Jade, Folium out — names that read like entries in a botanical dictionary.
Petals, petals and leaves, skilfully shaded, unfold on the textile surfaces through a variety of graphic shapes: central motifs, diagonal compositions, borders and full-field designs multiply the expressive possibilities of the floral theme. The decorations don’t just reproduce their subjects – they visually reinterpret them through layering and grouping, heightening perception both up close and at a distance, in what the brand describes as an almost cinematic visual play.
Technically, the collection introduces something new. The rugs are executed in the classic hand-finishing technique, in which—for the first time in this body of work—stitching was applied to selected parts of the design. The result, as Juliana Polastri, Design Director of Tai Ping explains, is distinguished by perceptual clarity: embossed effects, soft color gradients and stitched details combine to make these rugs sophisticated handmade objects that remain, at the same time, accessible.
For The baron himselfa designer keenly sensitive to colour, the process of translating his preparatory watercolors into woven form was the collection’s central challenge and achievement. Choosing from hundreds of colors, calibrating tones and perfecting gradations — all done via Tai PingHis technical expertise — it’s what makes each piece unique.
The presentation itself is worth noting. Instead of staging the carpets in a conventional exhibition, Baron has conceived the Piazza San Simpliciano space as an artist’s studio: sketches, preparatory drawings and watercolors line the walls, revealing the genesis of each floral motif and the material decisions behind it. Carpets hang like paintings. It’s an intentional act of transparency — an invitation to participate in the intimacy of the creative process rather than simply encountering its polished output.
For a brand with over six decades of craftsmanship behind it, and a designer whose work has passed through the Center Pompidou, the Cooper-Hewitt and the Triennale di Milano, the Floræ Folium range is a logical and considered evolution. Not a departure, but a deepening — proof that the most exciting design conversations are the ones that unfold slowly, over years, without rushing to a conclusion.
From April 20th, the collection will be shown at Tai Ping’s showroom in Milan (Piazza S. Simpliciano), with an installation designed by Sam Baron himself.
