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Milan 2012: this armchair with a pleated leather seat by London designer Benjamin Hubert was inspired by sleeves with puffed shoulders on Italian Renaissance clothing.

The Juliet chair features leather stretched over the base to expose the wooden frame underneath, while the seat is covered in squashy leather pleated in a triangular pattern.

Hubert’s was the winning design in a competition where twelve designers were invited to design an armchair to celebrate Italian brand Poltrona Frau‘s 100th birthday.

See all our stories about his work here.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile took place from 17 to 22 April. See all our stories about Milan 2012 here.

Here’s some more information from Hubert:

Juliet

Benjamin Hubert x Poltrona Frau

Benjamin Hubert has won the international competition to find Poltrona Frau’s Centenary armchair. The armchair for the 100 year old company that will be launched at Salone Del Mobile, enters into its iconic limited edition collection to represent its history and future.

The brief of the competition was to utilise the traditional upholstery techniques under the theme ‘a chair to spend time in’ and judged under the categories of; formal appearance, representation of the given theme, use and interpretation of leather and comfort.

Juliet, the chair awarded winner of the competition, is inspired by the Italian renaissance fashion detail the ‘Juliet sleeve’ a sleeve which tightly fits the arm and has a large de constructed ‘puff’ on the shoulder.

This inspiration was used to communicate the properties of leather upholstery. The outside of the chair utilises the flexibility and tensile strength of leather to describe a fluted traditional timber frame work where the shape of the timber can clearly be seen through the tight leather covering. This is contrasted by a ‘tri-pleated’ generous sitting area with a soft and loose appearance. This deconstructed area is used to describe the comfort of the chair. The shape of the sitting area is ‘wide screen’ to allow the user to sit in multiple positions in line with how people really use and miss-use furniture.

To celebrate Poltrona Frau’s centenary in 2012 the company “selected 12 of the most “promising young designers” from all over the world to compete in the challenge of designing the Poltrona Frau centenary armchair

The 12 designers include: Benjamin Hubert, Nendo, Stephen Burks, Nika Zupanc, Constance Guisset, Daphna Laurens

The 9 judges: Livia Peraldo Matton – Editor in Chief of Elle Decor Italy, Giulio Cappellini – Creative Director of Cappellini, François-Henry Pinault – Chairman of PPR Group, Jean Nouvel – Architect, Vanessa Friedman – Financial Times Fashion Editor, Anne-Sophie Von Clear – Deputy Director Lifestyle Le Figaro, Walter De Silva – Head Designer of the Audi Brand Group, Ratan Naval Tata – Chairman of Tata Group, Thomas Maier – Bottega Veneta

Materials: Leather,Polyurethane foam, Timber
Dimensions: W1000mm x H750mm x D800mm

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Milan 2012: the flexible back of this chair by Swedish designers Front comprises a thick spring wrapped in black leather.

Presented for Italian brand Porro in Milan last week, the Gentle chair has a matching black leather seat but pale wooden front legs, which continue up and around the backrest in one loop to form arms.

Over at Spazio Rossana Orlandi Front also showed a lamp that blows bubbles – check it out in our earlier story and see all our stories about their work here.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile took place from 17 to 22 April. See all our stories about Milan 2012 here.

Here are some more details from Porro:

Gentle design Front

Stolen from a fairy tale, directly coming from a children book, the result of any dream coming true, the Gentle chair entirely reinterprets the seat archetype, making its shapes far more modern and purified.

If at a first glance it looks like a continuum, a pattern drawing drafted without moving the pencil from the paper, in reality it perfectly hides a complex project, matching metal covered by soft leather at the back legs level, moving up to the back arch, to the light wood of the front legs, becoming the arm and back supports, in a subtle opposite contrast.

The soft back and the leather upholstered seat make the chair “soft” at the touch and at sight, in an harmonic double-coloured optical effect, graphical and retro at the same time, always two colours perfectly and elegantly matched.