The Eames Lounge Chair
The Eames Lounge Chair was commissioned for the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Released in 1956, this lounge chair swept across the world with a fervor rarely before seen in furniture design. This chair is now in the New York’s Museum of Modern Art. This chair was different from what Charles and Ray Eames traditionally designed. They typically designed furniture that was affordable in addition to being able to be mass produced. This luxury item was a departure from that affordability, instead drawing inspiration from the English club chair.
Comprised of a plywood body, this chair utilized the techniques learned by Eames and his team in terms of plywood bending and forming to shape this new medium. However, the luxurious upholstery elevated this otherwise basic design to a level which gained it quite the amount of fame and renown. Up until the 1990s, the chair was built with rosewood, but subsequently walnut and cherry were used instead. The Eameses wanted their lounge chair to resemble that warm feeling of a well-worn in baseball glove. It certainly does just that, inviting one to sit right in and enjoy a comfortable, whole-body nestled-in experience.
This chair quickly became synonymous with comfort and gained much popularity among the elite and upper-middle class that could afford to spend so much money on a simple lounge chair. Those without the means to purchase the chair were left to view it on TV, where it debuted on news networks and even on Frazier. Recently, Shark Tank updated their set to include a set of these chairs. The popularity spans generations and has begun to be synonymous not only with comfort, but with wealth and status. Just as a shiny new sports car says to the neighborhood, ‘Hey y’all, I’ve got cash to burn’, so does this chair and its connected ottoman scream to the world, ‘Hey y’all, I follow elite design trends and have cash to burn’.
One has to admit though, critic or not, that the chair looks splendid. Its curves are voluptuous and the differences in texture and color are eye-catching indeed. For the home or office, this is the ultimate status symbol. The design is still produced today by Herman Miller. Since a chair can run upwards of five grand today, these are not for the middle class, or even the upper middle class. In order to burn upwards of five grand on a chair, you have to be rolling in excess cash.
One might assume it requires an air of arrogance to place a chair like this in one’s own home, and one might be correct in that assumption. The chair is luxuriously styled and requires one to recline in such a way that nothing can get done while sitting in it. It is the ultimate in relaxation and one must have time to waste in order to sit comfortably in it. It seems strange that the Eameses would depart from their record of producing quality affordable furniture and instead produce such a remarkably opulent device.
