Saturday, October 3. Hot. The kind of LA heat that makes you want to sit down.
Good thing that was the whole point.
LA Chair III took over Main Street Workshop in Lincoln Heights for one day during LA Design Weekend. Eric Trine arranged 40+ chairs from designers and makers based in Los Angeles. Wood. Steel. Aluminum. Foam. Upholstery. Every one of them was on the floor, and every one of them was meant to be used.
People came through from 11am to 4pm. Donuts and coffee in the morning. Wine and cheese in the afternoon. A big crowd the whole day.
One Rule
LA Chair has one rule. You must sit.
A hand-painted sign on the wall said it plainly: "Take a seat on chairs that stand on their own." Another named the room the Los Angeles Department of Chair Research and Enjoyment. Nobody needed to be told twice.
People sat. Stood up. Tried the next one. Sat again. A curved white shell. A wire chair drawn in yellow loops. A molded wood chaise with a gold cushion. A chair cast in shimmering brass. A slatted chair striped in red and white. Every chair was different. Every body was different. The only way to know what works for you is to sit in it.
That is great information for a chair maker. You learn more from watching one stranger lean back than from a hundred likes.
Our Two Chairs
We brought two new pieces. This was the first time either one left the studio.
The Block Chair. Black powder-coated aluminum. Flat planes, square legs, and a perforated back that throws a pattern of light across the seat. It looks hard. Then you sit in it.
The Tube Lounge Chair. A continuous teal tube frame with a deep, low upholstered seat and back. It sits close to the floor. You sink in and stay.
Watching people find them was the best part of my day. Some walked right past the Block Chair, then came back and sat. A few people did not want to get up from the Tube Lounge. That is the review I was hoping for.
Behind the Front Door
One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to see where our hosts actually work.
Main Street Workshop is a real fine furniture shop. Alejandro Artigas and his team opened up the whole place. The front showroom held work from Wolfum and 100xBTR. Then you stepped through into the production space, where the chairs were, and where things actually get made.
It was great to see Annabel Inganni's Wolfum pieces and Brendan Sowersby's 100xBTR work up close, in the same building as the tools and benches behind them. Showroom and production under one roof. You could see the finished thing and the place it came from in a single walk.
That is rare. It made the show feel less like an exhibition and more like being invited into someone's home.
Thank You
Thank you to Eric Trine for pulling this together and for keeping every chair on the same level. The ground.
Thank you to Alejandro Artigas, Brendan Sowersby and Annabel Inganni for opening your doors. You set the tone for the whole day.
Thank you to every maker who hauled a chair across town in that heat. And thank you to everyone who came through and sat down. You finished our chairs for us.
See you at LA Chair IV.
Gaurav