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Eames Lounge Chair

The Eames Lounge Chair has become one of the most important classics of furniture design in the 20th century

The design

As elegant as an English club chair and as soft as a baseball glove: the Vitra Lounge Chair. The sophisticated design of Charles and Ray Eames is constructed from lightweight moulded plywood elements, stable metal clips and bulky leather upholstery mounted on a five star foot. Completing the all-round carefree feeling of the American design classic is the matching ottoman.

A new edition of the '50s classic was realised in 2002 in context of a collaboration between the Eames Office and the Dutch designer Hella Jongerius: a white pigmented walnut shell and white leather help create the special charm of luxurious comfort. Thus the Eames Lounge Chair White skilfully bridges the gap between tradition, modernity, elegance and comfort.

Finishing of the Lounge Chairs at the Vitra Atelier

The Production

All who choose an original Eames Lounge Chair from Vitra have the opportunity to purchase it from a retailer and experience the final production in the Lounge Chair Atelier on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. The Vitra design classic is assembled there with the loving attention to detail and craftsmanship one expects and certified with a special label.

10 things you probably didn't (yet) know about the Eames Lounge Chair

The Eames Lounge Chair turned 60 year in 2016, but remains true to its original purpose of making the classic lounge chair lighter and more contemporary. But then you knew that. Here as 10 things that you probably didn't know about the true classic among the lounge chairs...

1. The first calligraphic impression of the Eames Lounge Chair comes from the artist Corita Kent, a friend of Charles and Ray Eames. It shows the Lounge Chair and later design classics disassembled into its individual parts.

2. Since its creation in 1956, the original design of the Eames Lounge Chair has not changed. Therefore owners of older models can still order replacement parts - should they be required.

3. The Eames Lounge Chair is part of the permanent collection of over 20 outstanding museums in the United States and Europe.

4. The Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman was the first and only chair that presenter Arlene Francis explicitly presented to her national audience in the 1950s U. S. series Home Show. This was unique for the time and made the popular chair even more popular.

5. The Eames originally designed the characteristic five-star base of their Lounge Chair & Ottoman as a base for a side table.

6. Director and screenwriter Billy Wilder, a good friend of Charles & Ray Eames, received the second Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman produced. This was thanks for a modernist chair that the couple had received from Wilder years before and greatly appreciated. Jokingly Charles is said to have wished he had designed the chair himself.

7. The upholstery for the Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman are absolutely symmetrical and can also be flexibly exchanged with each other, as they are all exactly the same size.

8. In 1961 an article was published in the magazine Playboy, which introduced several contemporary designers. In the case of the Eames Lounge Chair, the author spoke of a chair that allowed the sitter to sink into such voluptuous luxury as only a very few mortals were allowed to enjoy in ancient Rome since Nero's time.

9. Charles Eames invited film producer Julian Blaustein to come to his studio and read scripts in peace while sitting in a trial version of the Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman. When Charles returned, his friend had fallen asleep. Blaustein may have been embarrassed, but Charles found this to be a confirmation of his design.

10. Although the Eames Lounge Chair, as we know it today, did not come into being until 1956, Charles Eames and his friend Eero Saarinen submitted a prototype of the chair to the Museum of Modern Art in New York'S 1940 Future Ideas contest

The Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman exist in a number of additional special editions such as the Lounge Chair & Ottoman Beauty Versions, here in chestnut brown