Eames lounge chair

Tausendfach imitiert bleibt dieser moderne Klassiker doch immer unübertroffen. Von JULIAN EARWAKER

PEASY US AUDIO

ut your feet up and relax. Enjoy the soft black leather, the gently curving plywood frame, and the elegant veneer. As its designers had envisaged, this modernist reinvention of an English club chair embraces its sitter like a giant baseball glove.

The Eames lounge chair was created by the American husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames. It was launched with a matching ottoman in 1956 by the US furniture company Herman Miller, Inc.

Charles Eames began his career as an architect. Ray had trained as a painter. The couple met at art school in Michigan in 1940 and set up their company, Eames Office, in Los Angeles a year later. Out of this studio came pioneering concepts for furniture, architecture, photography, and filmmaking.

Early on, their focus was on using molded plywood furniture. They were the first designers to do this successfully — their lounge chair has four plywood elements. While the Eameses generally aimed to create inexpensive furniture, the lounge chair was always a luxury object. Nevertheless, it sold well and established itself as an icon of 20th-century design. The chair can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. It also appeared in the American TV series House, M.D., and Frasier.

In the US, Eames designs are still manufactured today by furniture specialists Herman Miller, Inc.; in Europe, they are produced by the Swiss company Vitra.