Promotion: Leather or Fabric Upgrade for Eames Lounge Chairs

More Luxury For The Same Price: Upgrade For The Eames Lounge Chair

Design icon at a special price: until 31 January 2026, we will give you a leather or fabric upgrade when you purchase an Eames Lounge Chair – with or without ottoman. Simply choose your preferred upholstery material and pay only the price of the next cheapest category.

(Nubia material is excluded from this offer as it is the least expensive option.)

Furniture design for life – the Eames Lounge Chair by Vitra

An absolute classic: Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames

The Eames Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames is one of the most famous furniture design icons of the 20th century. Since its creation in 1956, it has become a symbol of style consciousness, as it uniquely combines luxurious comfort, timeless elegance and precision craftsmanship. Its distinctive character makes it not only the centrepiece of private living spaces, but also the first choice for prestigious lobbies and lounges. Anyone who chooses an Eames Lounge Chair is investing in an original design of the highest material quality and exceptional durability. Whether as a stylish retreat or a statement piece, the Lounge Chair always makes a clear statement.

► Design and development of the Eames Lounge Chair
► Sustainable manufacturing at Vitra
► Original vs. copy – How to recognise the genuine Eames Lounge Chair
► 10 special facts about the Eames Lounge Chair
► Configuration and advice online and in the smow store

Design and development of the Eames Lounge Chair

The Eames Lounge Chair, designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1956, was created as a radical reinterpretation of the traditional English club chair. The Eameses overcame the heaviness and bulkiness of this historical predecessor by combining visual lightness with a luxurious feel.

Charles Eames wanted to create an armchair in which the user would sink "like into a soft, used baseball glove". To achieve this, generous leather-covered cushions that gently cradle the body were inserted into a structure made of lightweight moulded plywood elements connected by rubber-metal joints (known as shock mounts). The swivel five-star base made of aluminium gave the armchair additional flexibility and elegance. The Lounge Chair was complemented by an ottoman in the same design, which completed the ensemble.

The design, which combined the modern aesthetics of mid-century modern with traditional design patterns, quickly gained international recognition: Shortly after Vitra acquired the licence for the European market in 1957, the Lounge Chair was awarded the Triennale Prize in Milan, and by 1960 it had been included in the permanent design collection of the MoMA in New York, as well as appearing in numerous films and magazines.

Working closely with the Eames Office and drawing on decades of production experience, Vitra has improved many details of the Lounge Chair and geared it towards a sustainable future. The height of the Lounge Chair has been minimally adjusted in recent years to reflect current average body sizes. New fabric covers allow it to be used in a variety of interior design contexts – even beyond the traditional study. With a focus on greater sustainability, production has been converted to regional woods and environmentally friendly materials.

The new lightness: Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman in light wood with Nubia upholstery

Sustainable manufacturing at Vitra

The Lounge Chair is manufactured by Vitra in 47 precise steps, most of which are carried out by hand. Each plywood shell is carefully shaped, sanded and lacquered before being assembled. The covers are made of fabric or high-quality aniline leather and filled with foam and fleece. Air holes in the upholstery ensure that the cushions adapt perfectly to the body when you sit down. In addition, all upholstery elements can be removed and thus flexibly replaced.

The wood and leather come from controlled European production, which significantly increases the sustainability of the lounge chair. The careful selection of materials, handcrafted production and robust workmanship make the Eames Lounge Chair a piece of furniture that can last for generations. Vitra also offers an extended manufacturer's warranty for the Eames Lounge Chair and other selected design classics: 10-year extended manufacturer's warranty for Eames Lounge Chair.

Original vs. copy – How to recognise a genuine Eames Lounge Chair

An original Eames Lounge Chair is exclusively manufactured by Vitra, the authorised manufacturer in Europe since 1957. Distinctive features of the original include:

► Precisely manufactured plywood shells with 8 mm veneer thickness and precisely defined curve radii
► High-quality upholstery that is attached to the back of the shells with zips and is removable and replaceable
► Characteristic five-star base made of die-cast aluminium with a stable mechanism
► Firmly glued rubber shock mounts on the outside of the wooden shells, which provide flexibility – without visible screws
► A Vitra label or embossing on the underside of the seat shell

Vitra's legal and historical connection to Charles and Ray Eames is unique: the founding couple Willi and Erika Fehlbaum maintained a close working relationship and friendship with the designers, so that manufacturing decisions were coordinated directly with them or later with their heirs. This allowed the complex design vision to be fully realised.

10 special facts about the Eames Lounge Chair

The Eames Lounge Chair is now 70 years old, but remains true to its original purpose of making the classic lounge chair lighter and more modern, both then and now. We have compiled 10 things you probably didn't know about the classic lounge chair par excellence.

1. The first calligraphic illustration of the Eames Lounge Chair was created by artist Corita Kent, a friend of Charles and Ray Eames. It shows the lounge chair and later design classic broken down into its individual parts.

2. Since its creation in 1956, the original design of the Eames Lounge Chair has remained unchanged. Even owners of very old models can still easily reorder replacement parts for their collector's items today.

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

4. The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman was the first and only chair that presenter Arlene Francis explicitly introduced to her national audience on the 1950s American series Home Show. This was unique at the time and immediately made the popular chair even more popular.

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

6. Director and screenwriter Billy Wilder, a good friend of Charles and Ray Eames, received the second Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman ever produced. This was in gratitude for a modernist chair that the couple had received from Wilder years earlier and cherished above all else. Charles Eames is said to have jokingly remarked that he wished he had designed the chair himself.

7. The cushions for the Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman are completely symmetrical and can also be interchanged flexibly, as they are all exactly the same size.

8. In 1961, an article appeared in Playboy magazine introducing various 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 that very few mortals since the time of Nero in ancient Rome had been able to enjoy.

9. Charles Eames invited film producer Julian Blaustein to come to his studio and read scripts at his leisure while sitting in a test version of the Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman. When Charles returned, his friend had fallen asleep. Blaustein may have found this embarrassing, but Charles saw it as confirmation of his lounge chair design.

10. Although the Eames Lounge Chair as we know it today was not created until 1956, Charles Eames and his friend Eero Saarinen submitted a prototype of the Eames Lounge Chair to a competition on the future of furniture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as early as 1940.

Configuration and advice online and in the smow store

The Eames Lounge Chair can be customised at smow. There is a choice of different wood veneers, upholstery fabrics, colours and frame finishes, allowing for over 3000 variations. The Lounge Chair is available as a set with a matching ottoman or individually.

In the smow online shop, you can order your Lounge Chair from a wide range of selected variants:

Eames Lounge Chair with leather upholstery

► Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman as a set with classic leather upholstery
► Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman - Natural Edition with eco-leather

Eames Lounge Chair with textile covers

► Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman Nubia with Nubia textile cover
► Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman Calma with Calma textile cover

In the smow stores, you can try out the Eames Lounge Chair for yourself and get an idea of its comfort, materials and workmanship. You also have the option of configuring the lounge chair to your individual specifications and selecting the matching ottoman. Our expert teams will be happy to advise you on fabric and leather samples for your personal interior design situation.