The Dream List No. 29 - Robert Wright

The Beni Rugs co-founder on alpine hotels, Milanese restraint, velvet missteps, and why good design should always leave room to breathe.

Robert Wright doesn’t rush things. His world—like the rugs he designs—is built on time, intention, and texture. As co-founder of Beni Rugs, he’s spent the past several years quietly redefining how we think about the handmade: not as rustic or rough, but as refined, elevated, even architectural. Designed between New York and Morocco and handwoven in the Atlas Mountains, Beni rugs are unmistakable. They hum rather than shout, and ground a room the way good lighting or a great piece of art does—instinctively, elegantly, and with just the right amount of presence.

Before launching Beni in 2018 with longtime friend and collaborator Tiberio Lobo-Navia, Wright worked in branding and fashion, bringing with him a sharp editorial eye and a soft spot for imperfect beauty. “I’m always thinking about how a room makes you feel,” he says. “That’s the thing people remember—not whether it was on trend.” That mindset threads through everything he touches. From the studio’s monastic Marrakech showroom—complete with a seven-sided fireplace—to its ever-evolving seasonal collections, Beni is less about decoration and more about atmosphere. Even the brand’s color palettes feel lifted from memory: sun-faded terracotta, limestone, oxidized earth, soft chalk.

Wright’s own life follows a similar rhythm. He splits time between Barcelona and Morocco, punctuated by inspiration trips to alpine hotels and Milanese design fairs. Somehow, wherever he goes, he finds the best schnitzel, the best light, and the most beautiful design. But he doesn’t take any of it too seriously. He’s charming, dryly funny, and fully aware that sometimes a design idea just doesn’t land—especially when velvet is involved.

We caught up to talk about primary-color regrets, Milan in the fall, the particular beauty of a clean man post-run, and the museum he still can’t get out of his head.