Rosalind “Roz” Rustigian is probably one of the most successful specialist rug retailers in the US. Her knowledge of antique rugs and rug-making is unmatched, thus she was twice elected President of the Oriental Rug Retailers of America. According to her colleague Rob Leahy, owner of the specialist store “Fine Rugs of Charleston” in South Carolina, “Roz has a better grip on rug merchandising than just about anyone I know.

”Roz Rustigian came into the rug retail business in1980, when she took over her parents’ store, which was originally devoted to selling, cleaning and conservin gold rugs. She immediately expanded the business and turned it into one of the first specialist shops for high-end new and antique rugs, buying a vacant bank building and establishing one of the premier new and antique rug showrooms in America: Rustigian Rugs in Providence, Rhode Island.

Remarkably, she has always been open to new, often unusual developments. By now, for example, her custom“made-to-measure” rugs made from high-quality broadloom carpets has become a healthy complement to the handmade business.

Roz Rustigian devotes much of her free time to social service work. She was a founding member of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women, a still strong cause that brings young Afghan women to the US fora year’s course work at an American college or university.