Designed in 1930 by Renzo Frau, founder of publisher Poltrona Frau, the Vanity Fair celebrates its 90th anniversary with an update to its comfort, not its stainless lines.
In 1931, the year of its marketing, nothing predestined the Modello 904 armchair to become such an object of worship. Renzo Frau (1881-1926) had designed it with as much care as his other models, which are still produced by the company whose headquarters have been based in Tolentino, in the Marches, since the 1960s.
Vanity Fair, a European icon
Born in 1881 in Cagliari, Sardinia, Lorenzo Frau, nicknamed Renzo, did his military service in Milan. Returned to civilian life, he became a sales representative, notably for a manufacturer… of imitation leather. After his marriage to Savina Pisati, he moved to Turin. Piedmont seems to him to offer better auspices for his new business of importing furniture. Poltrona Frau was born there in 1912. The armchairs and sofas he designed himself were inspired by English, French and Central European furniture.
When the First World War broke out, Renzo Frau enlisted in the army and left Savina to run the company. Poltrona Frau's creations then began to enter salons, bourgeois interiors, and even the royal house of Savoy. When Renzo Frau died prematurely in 1926, Poltrona Frau's life continued. Savina thus published in 1930, according to drawings left by her husband, the famous Modello 904, inspired by the English Chesterfield club chair, whose reputation grew in Italy. It was renamed Vanity Fair in 1984 when it attracted an international clientele.
A special edition for the 90th anniversary
Its rounded back evokes the Art Deco era; the upholstery nails, covered with leather and beaten by hand, illustrate their craftsmanship. During an edition of D'Days, the fairy fingers of Poltrona Frau came to set up their workshop in the brand's Paris showroom. Pelle Frau leather was already familiar to connoisseurs, but what amazed was the almost perfect internal structure of the armchair: in solid ash with horsehair padding and steel springs strapped in jute.
For the 90th anniversary of the model, the publisher asked designer Roberto Lazzeroni to recompose the proportions of the seat in a version called "Vanity Fair XC". The spirit of the original is respected, but perfected. Goose feather is in the spotlight, with a polyurethane insert to allow the cushions to last longer. The designer's work has sometimes been described as sentimental, in transit between eras. We are right in it, but in the stopped time of perfect comfort.
