All About the Eames Lounge Chair (and Ottoman)
All About the Eames Lounge Chair (and Ottoman)
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How should one describe the Eames Lounge Chair? If constrained to just a word, I’d pick quintessential.
I’d also throw the design in the same category as the Coca-Cola Bottle, Porsche 911, Fender Stratocaster, or even the Rubik’s Cube. Some designs are so ubiquitous, so widely copied, that its simply hard to imagine a world without them. Some designs probably do live up to the hype.
The mandate behind the seating set focused first on comfort, not aesthetics. Charles recalled seeking to create a “special refuge from the strains of modern living.” - a furniture piece with a “warm, receptive look of a well-used baseball mitt.” While undeniably modern, the resulting rosewood and leather set proved a sharp contrast to the plastic-obsessed seating options of the era (and the Eames portfolio).
The Lounge Chair (670) and Ottoman (671) premiered in 1956. The Home Show on NBC hosted Charles and Ray to discuss the design. Across a 12-minute interview, the duo outlined the evolution of their design and shared a step by step review of its construction process. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.
The construction of the chair likely comprises much of its allure. Almost 70 years later, the chairs are built nearly the same way. Molded plywood parts are assembled in a press under high heat for shaping. A premium exterior ply (Brazilian rosewood until the early 1990s) is then molded to the structural wood sections. Removable cushions are covered in premium black leather with soft down. The back cushions and seating cushions are identical and can be reversed. A rotating star base made of die-cast aluminum provides a sturdy mount.
The chair and ottoman were well-received from the jump by critics and the general public. With an original retail price of $310, the set was never was a cheap option. Interestingly enough, adjusting for inflation, the chairs retail for just about the same price today. Remarkably, the design has been in continuous production since 1956 via MillerKnoll in the U.S, and some limited overseas production by Vitra and Hille International LTD.
The Lounge Chair and Ottoman are likely the most counterfeited and copied of all furniture designs. Shortly after 1956, the Plycraft Company released a number of obvious copycat products, none of which enjoyed much commercial success (despite cheaper price points). Direct copies out of Europe and Asia followed shortly, prompting Charles and Ray (or Herman Miller) to take out full-page newspaper ads warning consumers of counterfeit products.
The design’s legacy today is undeniable. The Museum of Modern Art in New York has an original 1956 rosewood set as part of its permanent collection. Other original sets are displayed at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Maybe the genius of the design is actually its ability to look at home in a fine art museum, or at home in your messy living room.
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