Black & Brown Wire Chair at Inside

When we were at Inside a few weeks back we absolutely fell in love with this wire chair. We've all seen them before, but the black wire with the brown bikini really worked for us. We think it's a great combination.

It's the wire chair on a low rod base with a bikini pad. The price is $349. It is available in black or chrome wire. The pads are made of Naugahyde, and the standard colors available are black, white, chestnut (shown in the photos), red, mandarin orange, and artichoke. (Special orders are available in leather and other Naugahyde colors and prices vary.) The lead time is typically 1-3 weeks for the standard bikini pad colors.

That base was originally called the "cat's cradle" when made by Herman Miller, and can also be combined with any of the fiberglass arm chairs or side chairs.

Comments (5)

this chair was on antique road show the original did not cost that much. and also they mentioned something about the metal and stress fractures.

posted by ala45 on July 7th 2008 at 11:32am
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Why the conspicuous lack of credit to the original designers of this chair and base, Charles and Ray Eames?

Is it because the chair pictured above is a knockoff manufactured by Modernica?

Regardless of whether or not you support the sale of knockoff goods (and yes, I know there are arguments to be made both for and against), shouldn't the original designers at least have been mentioned in the post? Considering the design has been around for close to 60 years, I think it's safe to call it iconic and assume that a good number of AT readers will recognize it.

By the way, this chair is still being manufactured by Vitra for Herman Miller with both R-wire and X bases.

posted by Anna at D16 on July 7th 2008 at 11:52am
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I found two regular height chairs that were black wire and had beautiful wool bikini pads at the Alameda Flea Market for $60 a piece. I think I actually peed myself when I saw them and they hadn't been snatched up by someone else. They're really quite comfortable and match perfectly with my original Eames shell chairs.

posted by BrendenM on July 7th 2008 at 12:33pm
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Clearly this is an Eames design, which was originally made for Herman Miller (and not for Modernica). Perhaps AT is trying to NOT endorse knock-offs by keeping quiet about the designer and manufacturer. If thats the case why not just find links to the actual licensed products and promote those?

Like these:
http://highbrowfurniture.com/seating/products/wirebase/

Again, I've heard ALL the arguments for both sides. Personally I favor authentic pieces for a number of economic, environmental, humanitarian, and design conscious reasons.

posted by Modfan on July 7th 2008 at 12:58pm
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thank you for bringing that up, Anna, I also thought the post was totally weird w/out mentioning the name "Eames".

posted by my little apartment on July 8th 2008 at 5:00pm
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