As soft as a glove.
"A special refuge from the strains of modern living."
A Unique Design
Designers Charles and Ray Eames were noted for their sense of playfulness and their willingness to think outside the box. In fact, they never thought inside the box. Their lounge chair and ottoman are perfect examples. It's hard to realize—now that these pieces have become true icons—but when they were introduced, they were unlike anything anyone had seen before.
Playing with Plywood
It all began in the 1940s, when Charles and Ray were playing around with plywood. They discovered new ways to mold the material with heat and pressure, which led to their development of plywood splints, glider shells, and other materiel used successfully by the U.S. Navy in World War II. When the war was over, Charles and Ray took one of those imaginative leaps they are known for: They thought they could make furniture with the same methods they had used to make splints for the Navy. The techniques they developed for making their Molded Plywood Chairs were combined with handcrafting techniques to make the lounge and ottoman.
"A Well-Used First Baseman's Mitt"
When he was conceptualizing the chair, Charles said he wanted it to have the "warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman's mitt." Charles's goal was that it be "a special refuge from the strains of modern living," so comfort was built into the pieces from the beginning. "Modern living" has only become more stressful in the last half-century; it's no wonder people still want to relax into that soft, luxurious "mitt."
A Change to Help the Earth
The veneers used to make the original chair and ottoman were Brazilian rosewood, which is endangered and non-sustainable. In place of rosewood, we now use santos palisander, which looks like Brazilian rosewood but is a sustainable alternative. All four veneers available for the chair and ottoman are now obtained from sustainably managed forests.
Archival photos courtesy of Eames Office LLC
The Evolution of an Icon
When we began manufacturing the chair and ottoman in 1956, we combined the hand-craftsmanship Eames admired at Herman Miller with the efficiencies of mass production that Eames' designs took advantage of. Throughout the Eames/Nelson era, we learned a great deal about incorporating craft ideals into the mass production of furniture.
But over the years, some efforts we made to improve quality came at the expense of craft. We chose a standard leather that wore better and faded less than the original aniline leather, and in doing so we surrendered some of the soft hand of the original leather. We discontinued oiled wood finishes in the 1980s in favor of the more efficient and easily maintained lacquer.
Now we are restoring the balance—and letting you make the choice. The new premium leather provides much of the softness and "sink-into-it-iveness" of the original, along with durability and color-fastness. The oiled finishes, while requiring periodic maintenance, produce the rich, lustrous look of the original veneers.
When these pieces were introduced, they were unlike anything seen before.
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