An Enduring Legacy
Edward Fields celebrates 90 years of creativity.
World Telegram and Sun, Ed Ford Library of Congress.
It all began with a relatively simple, extraordinarily ambitious idea: To make the most beautiful, unique, expertly crafted carpets the world had ever seen. Nine decades later, it’s a mission that continues to motivate and drive Edward Fields Carpet Makers, a creative house that firmly believes there are no limits when it comes to carpet design.
Throughout his years at the helm of his namesake business, Edward Fields would be referred to by colleagues and collaborators as a maverick, a showman, a style icon, a master marketer, an inventor, a perfectionist, a partner and a friend. His life and his legacy are celebrated in a new documentary—The Fifth Wall—which debuts at the Museum of Arts & Design during NYCxDESIGN this spring.
Edward Fields Archive.
1935
At the age of 23, Edward Fields and his new bride spend their honeymoon in Manhattan, setting up the first showroom for his fledgling company, Edward Fields Carpet Makers. The goal was clear: to morph the humble carpet into a luxury item, one bespoke design at a time. The current showroom continues the tradition of carpet as art.
Wagner International Photos.
1940s
Marion Dorn joins the firm and serves intermittently as its director of design for years to come. Referred to as “the architect of floors,” Dorn’s reign begins a legacy of women designers guiding the creativity at Edward Fields.
Library Of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Mid-1940s
Edward Fields invents the Magic Needle. The handheld device would make the company’s signature hand-tufted quality possible and would consequently change the carpet and rug industry as a whole.
Balthazar Korab Collection.
1940s–1960s
Edward Fields carpets make statements in an array of still-famous homes like the Kaufmann House, designed by Richard Neutra; the Lever House, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; and the Miller House, now a National Historic Landmark building, designed by architect Eero Saarinen and interior designer Alexander Gerard.
US National Archive.
1952
Edward Fields commissions its first collection of area rugs, a series of designs from “the father of Industrial Design,” Raymond Loewy. Successfully carried at Lord & Taylor, the line sparks Edward Fields to coin the term “area rug.”
Courtesy George Nakashima Studio.
1950s–1960s
Edward Fields Carpet Makers continues its commitment to creating “art for the floor” by partnering with top midcentury designers like Mies van der Rohe, Phillip Johnson, Van Day Truex and George Nakashima.
George W. Bush Presidential Library.
1960
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy turns to Edward Fields and Marion Dorn to design a new carpet for the Diplomatic Reception Room. The collaboration leads to an enduring history of Edward Fields Carpet Makers designing for both The White House and Air Force One.
Virginia McIntire.
1962
Elliot Fields, Edward’s younger brother, opens the Edward Fields showroom in Beverly Hills. The cocktail parties that follow in this colorful space are the stuff of Hollywood legend and the brand begins its still-prevalent run as a favorite among discerning celebrities.
1960s–1970s
Ready for its close up, Edward Fields—the man and his product—find their way onto screens large and small with an appearance by Edward himself on the popular game show What’s My Line? and in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, in which Sean Connery is captured lounging on an Edward Fields carpet in the John Lautner-designed Elrod House.
Superbass.
1970s
The company expands beyond residential projects to corporate offices, retail, luxury yachts and private jets. Among its more famed installations are at the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA lounge and terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport and in the lobbies of the Twin Towers, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, in New York City.
Edward Fields Archive.
1974
The company makes a colorful splash when one of its bespoke tapestries is hung on the exterior of the San Diego Federal Savings Bank in Queens, New York.
Edward Fields Archive.
1980
Jack Fields, Edward’s son, takes the helm and becomes president of the company.
George W. Bush Presidential Library.
2000
First Lady Laura Bush visits the Edward Fields factory in Queens, New York, to view the work-in-progress for a new carpet for the Oval Office.
2005
Custom carpet manufacturer Tai Ping, already a producer of some Edward Fields rugs, purchases the company. Tai Ping recognized Edward Fields as a trailblazer and a classic American design brand. It was committed not only to preserving that legacy but also to expanding Edward Fields’ reach to an international market.
Peden and Munk.
2007
Edward Fields works with the National Historic Landmark department to restore carpets at Hollyhock House. Originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1921, Hollyhock House was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list In 2019.
Edward Fields Archive.
2010–2020s
Continuing its legacy of collaborating with landmark creatives of the time, Edward Fields partners with contemporary artists Fernando Mastrangelo, for the Reverence Edition, and Bec Brittain, for the Taxonomy Edition. An additional partnership is brought to life with the Alpha Workshops, the nation’s first nonprofit organization to provide decorative arts education and employment to adults with visible or invisible disabilities.
Edward Fields Archive.
2025
To honor 90 years of creativity and boundary-breaking design, Edward Fields—the man and the company he founded—are celebrated in the documentary film The Fifth Wall, produced in collaboration with Aspire Film and Thurlkill Studios.