Vintage Mandarin Chair by Ettore Sottsass for Knoll, Italy, 1980s

$498.00

Ettore Sottsass spent his career rejecting the idea that good design had to be quiet, and the Mandarin chair is him saying so out loud. Sculptural enameled steel arms curve dramatically around a seat and back upholstered in the original colorful geometric fabric, bold, graphic, completely unbothered by the idea of blending in. Designed in 1986 for Knoll by the founder of the Memphis Group, this is postmodernism doing exactly what it promised: turning a chair into an argument. Original upholstery still intact, which is the rarer and better outcome.

Ettore Sottsass spent his career rejecting the idea that good design had to be quiet, and the Mandarin chair is him saying so out loud. Sculptural enameled steel arms curve dramatically around a seat and back upholstered in the original colorful geometric fabric, bold, graphic, completely unbothered by the idea of blending in. Designed in 1986 for Knoll by the founder of the Memphis Group, this is postmodernism doing exactly what it promised: turning a chair into an argument. Original upholstery still intact, which is the rarer and better outcome.