Born in the 1970s, these plump armchairs and sofas are making a comeback on social media. What does this return to ground-level seating and the generous curves of our contemporary desires say? The answer with IDEAT.
These last few months, it's been hard to miss Togo and its rolls... A veritable locomotive for Ligne Roset since its launch in 1973, "this sofa has often been first in class and it continues ! “, rejoices Michel Roset. In fact, it is the publisher's best-selling piece, with 1.5 million seats sold. If the armchair designed by Michel Ducaroy never left the catalog of the Ain company, its plump counterparts on the other side of the Alps did not meet the same fate: launched in 1970 by B&B Italia, Mario Bellini's Camaleonda was only produced for nine short years. Ditto for Soriana d'Afra and Tobia Scarpa (Cassina), whose production ended in 1982...
Fortunately, these seats, both crowned with a Compasso d'Oro, were recently taken out of the box. "We had been planning to reissue the Soriana for a while," explains Luca Fuso, CEO of Cassina. Today, this piece is a highly sought-after design icon, just take to Instagram to realize it. »
Instagram kingmaker
Indeed, you only have to delve into the kingmaker that is Instagram to appreciate the popularity of its foundations. "I was looking to put a sofa with generous and reassuring shapes in a modern pink version that I adapted", says designer Benjamin Guedj, known for his digital decor creations, who chose to integrate B&B's Camaleonda. Italia in one of its best-selling publications. On Le Bon Coin too, since 2016, the price of these seats (Togo, Soriana, Maralunga, Camaleonda combined) has more than doubled.
“Visually it’s comfortable, but once you’re seated in it, it’s even more so! »
A comeback that amuses Vincent Grégoire of the NellyRodi agency, who remembers the “mustard yellow” Togo that sat enthroned at his parents’ house. “There is something in this comeback that makes us very happy, confesses Michel Roset. We may finally get out of this Danish period…” The boss of Ligne Roset welcomes the “return to the 1970s, the period in which my father developed the company”. So simple cycle of trends that puts Scandinavian sideboards to rest in favor of the design of a new decade? Yes, but not only...
If comfort had returned to the heart of concerns long before the epidemic that hit the planet, “the Covid has given a layer of it. There is a real need to feel good at home,” explains Elizabeth Leriche, from the style office of the same name. "Visually, it's comfortable, but once you're seated in it, it's even more so! At the beginning of the seventies, designers took advantage of new synthetic foams, which emerged during the post-war boom period. “Before the war, an armchair consisted of a wooden structure, with wooden or metal upholstery for certain seats, and fiber padding,” explains Dominique Forest, curator in the modern and contemporary department of MAD.
The generous shapes of these seats
It is impossible to produce the generous shapes of the Camaleonda with this technique... "These foams are produced in blocks that can be cut at will," she adds. They can thus give rise to the plump volumes that we know. Curves that then echoed the concerns of the time: “The spirit was relaxed, post-hippie, in conversation, letting go. You had to be wallowing, sending the conventions flying. The approach to the body was more relaxed and inclusive. To which is added the enthusiasm specific to the period: “These foundations appear just before the first oil shock. At the time, everything was possible…”, emphasizes Vincent Grégoire.
"A new imaginary"
A frenzy that still does good, fifty years later, while the world somehow emerges from the doldrums of the pandemic: "These armchairs evoke a new imaginary , a return of space culture. We are so stuck in this postmodern period, where we can no longer do anything, eat anything, project ourselves anymore... We don't know what tomorrow will bring, unlike the 1970s. We really need period references where anything was possible. These seats, popular with the younger generations, are also appreciated by the older ones "who have the impression of reliving their youth, of no longer growing up". In short, to satisfy their “quest for eternal youth”.
"Something of identity in these seats"
Here are the millennials and boomers finally reconciled... So the owners of Togo are depressed in need of softness? Not only… It must be said that over the years, these seats have taken on character and have entered museum collections to become a key link in the history of design. “There is something of identity in this act of purchase. We belong to a category of people who have the culture of design, of which we must know the great signatures, ”underlines Elizabeth Leriche. And Vincent Grégoire adds: “If I have a health or professional problem, I resell it and I don’t lose any money. It's a good investment. Togo, stronger than the Housing Savings Plan?
>Togo sofa on Ligne roset.fr
> Calaméonda armchair at B&B italia.co.uk
> Soriana sofa at Cassina
