Designer Furniture

A feature article by Crisp, Nov 25, 2007         

Fashion moves in cycles so they say, and for the most part this is true. Indeed the UK is currently experiencing a resurgence in the ghastly fashion of the 80’s, we’d all tried so hard to forget. And it’s only a matter of time before the Global Hyper Colour t-shirts and ill-fitting fleece jackets of the nineties come around again. This is true and visually evident with Hotel Furniture . Hoteliers seem to favour the Retro look of the 50’s and 60’s when re-designing their interiors.

Similar fashion cycles are responsible for influencing furniture and interior design, however these cycles are slightly less predictable.

The past 10 years have seen the furniture industry dominated by 1960s inspired minimalistic designs. Carpets have been replaced by bare floor boards, traditional wooden dining chairs have been superseded by sculpted modern plastics and sharp angles have replaced soft edges. This cycle however, as with all others, seems to be coming to its natural end, and no doubt whichever fashion replaces it will lead to rehashed versions of furniture from days gone by.

One iconic furniture design however, remains an exception to this rule of cycle. The Egg chair. The Egg Chair’s story began as far back as 1958, when Denmark’s most celebrated furniture designer Arne Jacobsen was commissioned to design the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Designing everything from the architecture down to the smallest fitting, Arne created a masterpiece including a number of furniture designs that have since become legendary – the Swan Chair, the Drop chair and, of course, the Egg chair.

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Born in Copenhagen in 1902, Arne Jacobsen remains the undisputed king of furniture design in his native Denmark. His career highlights included groundbreaking architecture and product design, but his golden period was arguably the 1950s. He worked on revolutionary housing and school projects before designing one of his most famous products, the Ant chair, in 1951 which was famously straddled by Christine Keeler. The Egg chair and Swan chairs were launched shortly afterwards, securing Jacobsen’s status as one of the century’s most influential designers.

The original Egg chair is as in demand today as it always has been. Still manufactured by Fritz Hansen of Denmark the design has remained completely true to the original. In fact, so true is today’s egg chair to its original design that to the untrained eye it is indistinguishable from a 1950’s version. Modern reproductions of this design include the Egg Chair ZZX1.

Like all style icons, the Egg chair has spawned an entire genre of similar chair designs. It’s groundbreaking look was the inspiration behind other design classics, the best of which have to be Eero Arnio’s 1960s range of futuristic seating, including the Ball Chair, Bubble Chair and Pastil Chair.

The egg chair is still influencing furniture design to this day. Modern Retro swivel chairs are common place in homes, bars and nightclubs throughout the country and figure hugging tub chairs, reminiscent of this 50 year old style icon, have become a common feature in slick city centre hotels.