Chair Pants
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Khaki work pants — 30" inseam
8.5 oz Twill, 65% Polyester / 35% cotton
Eero Aarnio - Bubble Chair (1968)
As a young boy Eero Aarnio had been fascinated by soap bubbles. In the city he had never made one but fleeing the war to the countryside he remembers blowing huge soap bubbles from a barn. The bubbles would take off with the wind and drift far away to the fields. The image of a field filled with transparent soap bubbles stuck with him. After the success of the Ball Chair, Eero carried on designing again with a functional aim. Although a perfect hiding place from the outside world, Eero had found that reading in the Ball was not ideal. There was not enough light inside this cocoon. He had all kinds of ideas on how to let in light inside the Ball Chair including an experiment with a small window. After various efforts, he wondered, could the shell be made of a transparent material?
At first, he draught the shell to consist of two halves, joined together with a seam. He came to the conclusion that it would probably work, but the look would not be what the designer desired. The family had half-round acrylic ceiling windows at their home, and Eero started to wonder, how are they actually made? Eero grabbed the yellow pages and under the occupation listings found a company, which produced ceiling windows. He picked up the phone, called them and simply asked how the windows are made, and if his idea could work. It was possible, acrylic can be heated and blown into shape, just like a soap bubble. However, Eero faced another problem. With a shell made of acrylic, how would one fasten the shell to the pedestal? The structures would be too complex to work with, and the aesthetics would be completely different. There simply was no nice way to attach the shell to a leg. Finally, he came up with the idea of fixing it to the ceiling. The final sketch was designed in 1968. Now, one won’t run out of light reading in the Bubble, it’s flooding with natural light from all directions.
Hoge Stoel - Gerrit Rietveld (1919)
Rietveld’s “Hoge Stoel” was a very modern chair for its time, and it was photographed in several avant-garde interiors. It first appeared in print in the Dutch journal De Stijl, no. 12 (1920), as part of an interior designed by Theo van Doesburg in 1919. The same year it was published, Rietveld used a version of the chair in a modern interior for a clinic at Maarssen, Holland, though that chair did not have the two original side panels. The chair’s form has many affinities with Russian Constructivism, characterized by planar elements that seemingly float in space.
The work sits in an interesting time in Rietveld’s career, it dates from after the initial design of the classic Red-Blue Chair (1918), of which Rietveld is most closely associated, yet it predates its final realization in full color in 1923. Whilst not his most famous design, its use of line and the first introduction of color, the Hoge Stoel acted as a stepping stone for Rietveld to bring the 3rd dimension to Neoplasticism.
Argine Chair - Libidarch Group (1974)
The Argine Chair is a hybrid among pop provocation, poor art, ecologist tradition and pure entertainment, created by the group Libidarch, inside the trend of “radical design” from the 70’s. This form was first introduced at the 5th International Furniture Exhibition of Milan in 1975. Only 50 examples of this experimental design were produced and it consists of polyurethane foam and string
Libidarch was founded in Turin in 1971 by the architects Edoardo Ceretto, Maria Grazia Daprà Conti, Vittorio Gallo, Andrea Mascardi, Valter Mazzella. Active in the field of radical architecture (radical design) they carried out research on the "poor" or "banal" urban image by participating in the XV Triennale di Milano and the Biennale di San Paolo with the audiovisual "Proposal for the methodological definition of an architecture poor ". They proposed and implemented projects for the Busnelli industrial group and participated in design competitions.
Glass Chair - Shiro Kuramata - (1976)
Shiro Kuramata’s iconic Glass Chair is one of the most influential furniture designs of the 20th century. A breakthrough concept, and one that is profoundly true to its material, Glass Chair set a precedent for the direction of design in glass, in which the simplicity, transparency, and seeming weightlessness of the material are emphasized. Born in Tokyo, Kuramata studied architecture and interior design. In 1965, he established his own design practice in Tokyo. As an interior designer, he designed more than 300 bars and restaurants. Kuramata’s approach to designing objects reflects the atmosphere of innovation in postwar Japan.
By 1970, Kuramata had introduced alternative materials, such as acrylic and glass, into his furniture, which explored ideas of materiality and form. A functional piece of furniture, Glass Chair consists of sheets of glass bonded on their edges, with no screws or mounts, using a revolutionary ultraviolet adhesive that had just become available. Its design was partly inspired by the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, which Kuramata had watched and enjoyed. However, Kuramata was disappointed that, although the sets looked “futuristic,” Kubrick’s choices in furniture did not.* Kuramata’s solution was this minimalist armchair, stripped down to its essential elements, which appears to be both visible and invisible.
Chair Event - George Brecht (1972)
"Chair Events" is a performative and participatory installation that actualizes the concepts of occurrence and randomness in the same way as Brecht’s many other object-based events. There are several extant versions of "Chair Events" approved by Brecht, each with varying numbers of chairs and assortments of objects.
Each event is, in principle, an open work that can exist in two forms: as a performative installation that consists in enacting the many possible arrangements of chairs and objects, and as a sculptural (static) form that documents the arrangements made and the actions enacted with the chairs and the chosen objects in a given time and space. According to Brecht’s initial concept, each event is enacted during the timespan of a single occasion and ends afterwards.
The first “Chair Event” came out of George Brecht’s critical thoughts on the institutional forms of distributing, exhibiting and consuming art. This version of "Chair Events" features a wooden chair with pressure-sensitive tape, metal grater, offset flag, measuring tape, and wooden board game pieces.
Armchair - Gunnar Aagaard Andersen (1964)
Aagaard Andersen was one of the most ground-breaking Danish artists and designers of his time. When experimenting with new forms and shapes he often sought out what was essential in a material or in a new technology. With the polyurethane chair, designed in 1964, he radicalized this laboratory process and let the material itself take over the role of the designer. Examining the relationship between form and material, control and chance, he made the chair without any internal structure or bearing frame, simply by pouring out the mass of liquid polyurethane which then expands into a resilient mass.
According to Aagaard Andersen his aim was “to make a chair in one single material, a substance without mechanical joints, a method which can equally be used in systematic factory production and in fulfilling a craftsman’s changing wishes”. With this provocative, free-and-easy gesture Aagaard Andersen challenged the established image of Danish furniture art and entered design history.
One and Three Chairs - Joseph Kosuth (1965)
One and Three Chairs consists of a chair, a photograph of the chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition of the word "chair". The photograph depicts the chair as it is actually installed in the room, and thus the work changes each time it is installed in a new venue.
Two elements of the work remain constant: a copy of a dictionary definition of the word "chair" and a diagram with instructions for installation. Both bear Kosuth's signature. Under the instructions, the installer is to choose a chair, place it before a wall, and take a photograph of the chair. This photo is to be enlarged to the size of the actual chair and placed on the wall to the left of the chair. Finally, a blow-up of the copy of the dictionary definition is to be hung to the right of the chair, its upper edge aligned with that of the photograph.
Ombra Tokyo Chair - Charlotte Perriand (1954)
The Ombra Tokyo chair was designed for the 1954 Synthèse des Arts exhibition in Tokyo that featured the work of Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier, and Férnand Léger. Perriand’s inspiration was the gentle folds that characterize Japanese origami.
A supreme example of Perriand’s mastery of volumes, the Ombra Tokyo chair is shaped by the inherent salient thinness of the pressed plywood that Perriand has gracefully manipulated in the most profoundly fluid ways. The legs of Ombra Tokyo appear as though they have been cut and folded from the continuous seat and back – these splayed verticals exquisitely form gently upturned “feet” as they approach the floor. The back of Ombra Tokyo chair has been bifurcated by a single vertical cut that flows into a beautifully articulated, curved rectilinear void – allowing space to move through the chair’s form, further reinforcing the levity of the design.
Glove Seat - Susi & Ueli Berger (1970)
Susi and Ueli Berger jointly designed furniture for a range of manufacturers. Susi Berger-Wyss was born as Susy Wyss in Lucerne in 1938, trained as a graphic artist in Bern and worked for Sandmeier AG. The sculptor, painter, draughtsman and designer Ueli Berger was born in Berne in 1938 and completed internships with various architects, including interior designer Hans Eichenberger.
In 1962 Susi and Ueli Berger married and the pair began cooperating professionally, creating numerous popular furniture designs including a saddle leather armchair in the shape of a boxing glove for De Sede from Switzerland.
