For nearly 50 years, Ligne Roset's Togo has been one of the essential pieces of French design. A look back at the success story of this seat whose decorative potential has never been denied.
A best-seller from the French publisher Ligne Roset, the Togo armchair/sofa reflects the avant-garde spirit of a trendsetter of an era, the 1970s. Designed by Michel Ducaroy (1925-2009) in 1973, the Togo is more than a formally and technically innovative piece of furniture since it also invites you to live differently. Even today, it continues to fit into our interiors with its quirky style that has made it an icon of 20th century design. And its charm works all the more because it refers to an era of freedom and carelessness that still inspires dreams fifty years later.
The meeting between a designer and a publisher
The Ligne Roset family adventure began in the Alps in 1860. This small umbrella cane factory had to quickly reinvent itself when this typology fell into disuse. The ingenious idea of converting the turning machines to manufacture furniture enabled the company, which experienced exponential post-war growth, to recover. In the 1960s, mores were liberated and, with this liberation, ambitious designers emerged, breaking with functionalism, who decided to take advantage of innovative manufacturing techniques and new synthetic materials. Michel Ducaroy is part of this generation of pioneers. When he took over as head of the design department of Ligne Roset/Cinna, he allowed the French publisher to find a place for itself on the chessboard of international design.
An innovative base
If Togo is now a star in the Ligne Roset catalog, during its first official presentation at the Household Arts Fair (at the Palais de la Défense, in Paris ), it did not arouse the expected enthusiasm in the public… Only a few curious and avant-garde personalities noticed it, including the members of the jury for the René-Gabriel prize, which then rewarded “innovative and democratic furniture”. By awarding it this prize, they saluted an extremely innovative seat for its time, endowed with unprecedented comfort and an atypical structure born of an unprecedented manufacturing technique. Even today, we love it or we hate it!
Without legs or armrests, with its seat merging with the backrest, the Togo is one of a kind. Its crumpled silhouette makes all its charm and sets it apart from all the other sofas. Michel Ducaroy took advantage of his time at the Beaux-Arts in Lyon to design a one-piece sculpture, furniture that perfectly matches the shape of the body.
A curled up design for quality use
Beyond its singular aesthetics, it is for the immense comfort it provides that we choose the Togo in 2021. Fully padded , it owes its soft appearance to its structure and its foams of three different densities (polyether foam 21 kg/m3/3.2 kPa, polyether foam 28 kg/m3/4.8 kPa and high resilience polyurethane foam 26 kg/m3/ 1.4 kPa). These foams are wrapped in a cover lined with polyester wadding. Thanks to this unique design, the Togo is placed on the podium of furniture with the most absolute comfort.
Togo, a vintage or trendy sofa
For some, it's a Proust madeleine and remains a staple of seventies design. For others, on the contrary, its timeless lines make it relevant fifty years later. However, everyone agrees on one point: the iconic character of this seat-cushion which forms “a tube of toothpaste folded in on itself like a stovepipe and closed at both ends”, as Michel Ducaroy described it.
It is precisely its pleated, tense, crumpled appearance that makes it a unique decorative element. Over the decades, it has continued to formally reinvent itself and evolve its colors and materials. Today, the Togo is available in different formats (sofa, armchair, fireside chair, lounge, corner model, poufs and children's version) to adapt to all rooms and interior styles. Its palette of 899 versions in fabric or leather allows Togo to remain a best-seller in the 72 countries around the world where it is marketed.
Togo adopts an ecological conscience
Since the beginning of March 2021, Ligne Roset has launched into second-hand. The high-end French brand demonstrates its ecological awareness by offering to take back damaged models from Togo in exchange for a voucher to restore them. Indeed, only the fabric of the seat wears out over time but the foam parts are reusable. They are then either recycled or reupholstered and sold at half price on the Ligne Roset Lab site, which will soon be put online.
