Inspired by the Eameses

The Eameses LCM (Lounge Chair Metal), unveiled in 1946 at the MoMA, was breathtaking and cutting-edge at the time.

Image: Eames Office

The world's first plywood chair with metal legs, the LCM became an instant design classic, selling tens of thousands of units within a matter of years.

Image: Eames Office

Image: Eames Office

Image: Eames Office

One of the people who purchased the LCM was Danish architect/designer Arne Jacobsen. A fan of the Eameses work, Jacobsen kept the chair in his studio as inspiration, and intended to one day design bent plywood chairs himself.

The Ant Chair

In the early 1950s, Jacobsen had his chance. The Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Industries (today called Novo Nordisk) was growing, and wanted a nice cafeteria for the 600 employees at their Copenhagen headquarters. Jacobsen, who had already (and would continue to) design factories for Novo, was hired to design the chairs.

Jacobsen's answer was the Ant chair. This design pushed past what the Eameses had accomplished, as the seat and back were a single piece of bent plywood. The chair was designed to be economical, using a minimum of material—the tapered waist hints at the insect that inspired the form—and practical for a cafeteria, being stackable. The initial design featured, unusually for the time, just three legs; Jacobsen felt it prevented a sitter's legs from getting tangled. Even more radically, Jacobsen specified the legs be made of plastic, a more modern material than metal.

Image: lglazier618, CC BY 2.0

Fritz Hansen was reportedly not interested in producing the chair—perhaps it was seen as too radical for the time—but Novo put in an order for 300 units, so into production it went. And there was apparently some debate about the legs; while we don't know the particulars of the discussion, we know that the Ant chair that wound up in the cafeteria had four legs made of metal, rather than three made of plastic.

The Ant chair went on to became a commercial success, and Fritz Hansen still manufactures it today.

The No. 7 Chair

In 1955, Jacobsen designed a follow-up to the Ant chair. His Model 3107 chair—today referred to as the No. 7 chair and/or "the Sevener"--was an elegant refinement of the Ant chair, with the Ant's irregular cutouts made smoother and more flowing.

It retained the stackability.

Image: Corvus, CC BY-SA 4.0

More pleasing to the masses than the Ant, the No. 7 chair went on to become one of the most successful furniture designs in history, selling millions of units.

The Profumo Affair

There is a bit of a tawdry sidenote involving a knockoff of the chair. In 1963 Christine Keeler, a 21-year-old British showgirl, was involved in a sex scandal. That year the British press revealed that she had had an affair with both John Profumo, the (married) British Secretary of State for War—as well as Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché. As the Cold War was going on at the time, this was a career-ender for both Profumo and the British Prime Minister. The socialite who introduced Keeler to the men was put on trial and committed suicide.

Keeler became famous—think 1960s Kardashian—and British celebrity photographer Lewis Morley shot an iconic portrait of her that year. The provocative image featured a nude Keeler partially concealed by a chair Morley happened to have in his studio.

Morley's studio chair was a knock-off of the No. 7 chair. Note the handle cut-out, which the original design does not have.

The image went 1960s viral, and The Independent suggests that it boosted sales of the actual No. 7.

So famous did the knock-off chair become that the Victoria & Albert Museum acquired the actual chair from Morley, referring to it as the Keeler Chair.

The museum points out what makes it a knockoff: "The plywood is much thicker and less subtly molded," Gareth Williams, who works in the V&A's furniture, textiles and fashion department, told the newspaper. "The cinched 'waist' is more pronounced, and the front of the seat is set back too far. Unlike Jacobsen's chair, this model has a cut-out handle at the top of the seat, but even this is inaccurately positioned and irregularly cut."

The Series 7 - Tailored

Now let's wash the taste of scandal out of our mouths, and discuss another type of sexy. This is the 70th anniversary of the Sevener, and Fritz Hansen has created a special Series 7 – Tailored model. They've partnered with Italian leather specialist Enrico Pellizoni to wrap the chair in three sensual, precisely-stitched leather finishes: Slate grey, warm ecru and saddle brown.

Speaking to the lasting nature of the design, Creative Director Els Van Hoorebeeck says, "Since its release, it has been used in significant interiors as well as in everyday life—at home and in the workplace. You can make it approachable or more exclusive. These two characters—one functional, stackable, practical; the other expressive and iconic—coexist in the same design. It has withstood the test of time, again and again."

The Series 7 – Tailored launches today.