A Chair for the Lair

Super villains need furniture too. In fact, the chair, the desk  or lounge chair they choose can do a lot to help assert their evil authority on minions, and intimidate  good guys (not to mention compensate for any possible shortcomings).

Evil doctor, uniform dresser and cat lover Ernst Stavro Bloefeld is one of the most memorable Bond bad guys. With wings masking his face as Bloefeld slowly pets his white Turkish angora, and a built-in swivel for dramatic effect when he decides to reveal his scared face, Moroso’s ‘Take-a-line-for-a-walk’ (in the tight leather finish) is the perfect chair to plot world domination in.

In space lightness is key, which is why the carbon fiber ‘Surface’ table by Established and Sons has the force with it, and is an obvious choice for the Death Star. With plenty of the ‘high-tech’ cred necessary for a futuristic evil space ship, it is as black as the surrounding galaxy and Darth Vader’s heart. 

A long ago, a neutral Moroso chair fell into a vat of radioactive goop in an altercation with a bent-wood Alvar Aalto piece, and came out a whole different mutation. In a bright green finish, the ‘Shadowy’ has a certain throne-like gravitas with a light funky side, not unlike The Joker’s famous sudden mood jumps. 

Modern on the outside, traditional on the inside, the ‘Dessous Chic’ table by Zanotta is the opposite of the Cardinal de Richelieu, nemesis of Dartagnan and the three Musketeers. Meaning ‘chic underthings’, it has the Cardinal’s crimson color and hidden perversion and would fit seamlessly in a Louis XIII interior.

 Just an arm in a steel glove and chintzy punk jewelry, Dr Claw remains forever hidden by a chair arm and back. A sleek update could be Flexform’s ‘Boss chair’, the arms of which would perfectly support Dr Claw’s visible limb.

Comic super villain ‘The Dictator’ portrayed by Charlie Chaplin is out to take over the world with is associates, Herr Garbage and Herr Herring. As the Dictator tries to be intimidating but often ends up clumsy, The ‘Heart Cone’ chair grand presence yet playful heart shape befitting to the character.

A despicable yet fragile Swiss villain, ‘Le Chiffre’ likes luxury and enjoys comfort. A good place to take a break and have a refreshing drink and pshitt of inhaler, the ‘Grand Tour’ by Zanotta and Maserati helps an evil mastermind relax in style.

Glas Italia’s ‘Merci Bob’ is as beautiful and uncomfortable as Narnia’s Ice Queen. It has the feeling you would get if she peered straight at you, completely stiff and see-through.

by Claire Toussaint Abbiyesuku

Chair? Ottoman? Sofa?

Between modular, convertible, configurable, fold-able and expandable, the lines have been considerably blurred between sofa, chair, ottoman, bed, table, chaise, bench, lamp, lounge, armchair… Home inventories could soon start to cite ‘seating apparatus’ or ‘surface element’ among the lighting fixtures and rugs.

Here are a few examples of pieces we understand but can’t quite qualify…

A sculptural cross between a Mondrian and a Malevich, artsy duo Muller Van Severen’s ‘Future Primitives’ series provide seating, storage and lighting all in one angular composition I’m sure Charlotte Perriand would approve of.

Matali Crasset, champion of small spaces and shockingly bright colors, is an adept of the modular, extra space for a sleepover kind of sofa. Here are a couple examples of sofa-chair-ottoman-beds designed to come apart and be put back together, and repeat.

Another creation for Campeggi, ‘Sosia’ by Emanuele Magini is a covered guest bed cum armchairs cum secret sofa that may be a little bit difficult to imagine in your living room, but would certainly start a conversation or two at your next party (on the downside, you may find people hiding in there the next morning).

Who says all-in-one furniture needs a fancy-futuristic organic shape? ‘Triple Objects’ by Frederik Roijé includes a clearly defined chair, table and lamp which happen to share the legs they stand on.

Another Lamp/table/chair, by Carina Van Den Bergh, is part of a family of furniture called ‘Naif’. Different modules line up to create a furnished landscape of recognizable but slightly perplexing elements; a little bit like the first mutation in the evolution of furniture from separate pieces of rectilinear furniture to all-encompassing organic blobs.

If it’s all too much, and you’d prefer to go run and hide somewhere soft, you can always turn to Freya Sewell’s felt pods. Useful for napping, working, or general alone time, this fugly pixie dwelling does not fall under any known category… besides maybe children’s forts?

I wonder if Zaha Hadid was hesitating between architecture and biology for her college major…  She certainly has a flair for the built organic. The intriguing upholstered shapes pictures here are ‘Zephyr’, a sofascape inspired by erosion patterns.  

Although it has a bit of a ‘took-me-five-minutes-to-construct-in-CAD’ look to it, the ‘Dual cut’ chair/table/ottoman by Kitmen Keung for Sixinch is a model of efficiency in the ‘waste not want not’ department.

by Claire Toussaint

Many Chairs Make Much Art

No longer content to be an integral part of an overall interior, chairs are reclaiming their sculptural qualities and bridging the gap between art and design. (All this to seemingly sell chairs to be in your interior)

A feast for the eyes and a great way to show off variations in style and color, shooting chairs out of context allows the potential client to look at them in a very different way. The focus is no longer on how well the chair complements the rest of the environment, but on the formal character of the chair itself. Accordingly, the buying process is cleverly altered to one similar to buying art (which is certainly not chosen on how well in goes with a sofa).

Italian manufacturer Pedrali turns 50 this year, and to celebrate they have developed an ad campaign showing the top view of dozens and dozens of chairs laid out in geometrical shapes like the candles on a birthday cake.

 Arper, another Italian manufacturer, uses photos of their products stacked, piled or bunched together on a neutral background like topless models in jeans. Definitely shows off the curves, although not necessarily the scale of the piece.

Nothing says ‘garage sale’ like piling up all your furniture in front of the house.  But somehow if you pile it up in a photo studio, or line it up perfectly in front of the factory, it suddenly says ‘list price’.

To hell with scale, chair art translates easily to doll size pieces! Instead of arranging them in a small open-faced dwelling, they can be hung by their feet in a spherical shape around a light bulb with interesting shadow effects...

 Finally, for the no-longer-parentally-guided crowd, a little straight-up chair-porn mise-en-scène and photographed by the inimitable Karl Lagerfeld. From light necking, to a little upside-down plaisir à deux, to a pile-up of countless chairs, the fashion master plays up the leather and fur side of each piece.

By Claire Toussaint