eames shell chairs: modern minimalist classic or bourgeois cliche?

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http://www.ugr.es/~jfg/casas/sillas/eames%20plastic%20chair48.jpg

― ray charles, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 02:11 (twenty years ago)

both

― the enduring pueblo (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 02:17 (twenty years ago)

Not terribly controversial moderator edit Lock Thread

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 02:21 (twenty years ago)

why?

― rc, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 02:23 (twenty years ago)

YES! WHY EAMES!? WHY!?

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 02:24 (twenty years ago)

it's a good chair

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 02:57 (twenty years ago)

not as good as his tables, films, textiles, or upholstered goods, or the hanger on, or other work, but excellent none the less

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:11 (twenty years ago)

Bourgeois cliche, like the rest of the modernist collectible market.

― Big Willy and the Twins (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:16 (twenty years ago)

not stackable = dud

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:22 (twenty years ago)

who cares about the shell chairs. The lounge chairs are even more of a cliché only they're really comfortable and awesome
http://www.schd.com/images/products/Eames-Chair-and-Footstool.jpg

You can't stack them either though.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:27 (twenty years ago)

So many of them were made that you can get them practically free!

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:28 (twenty years ago)

yours, for only $3100

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:39 (twenty years ago)

see, this is why ikea exists

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 03:40 (twenty years ago)

I didn't realize that Ray Eames was a woman until a few weeks ago.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:34 (twenty years ago)

i have a red armchair on walnut runners that makes me smile every time i look at it. i am a bourgois cliche but okay with it.

http://www.modernica.net/admin/images/modernica_store/image_1287.jpg

― dan (dan), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:43 (twenty years ago)

http://www.modernica.net/admin/images/modernica_store/swatches/swa_214_lg.jpg

― dan (dan), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:46 (twenty years ago)

it cost about the same as the ipod i don't own but will last many times longer.

― dan (dan), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:49 (twenty years ago)

fuck the haters.

― dan (dan), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 04:49 (twenty years ago)

i have wanted one of those lounge chairs very badly for a very long time. they are like the most comfortable things ever.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 05:07 (twenty years ago)

i've never liked the shell chair much compared to the other stuff, but if eames products epitomize the bourgeois cliche, i embrace it fully. not that i didn't already, of course.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 05:17 (twenty years ago)

Vahid there was a thrift store around here that had a slightly beat up one for ~$150! It might have been an Eames ripoff or something I guess.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 05:29 (twenty years ago)

either that or a cat peed on it.

― DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 05:33 (twenty years ago)

the best furniture is the stuff you find on the street on trash day! the upper east side and park slope are especially good for great junk finds if you live in NYC.

― geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 05:35 (twenty years ago)

eames is ulta classic and was modernist collectible even when it came out. the shell chair at the top of the thread is duller than most eames though. dan's rocker is much better of the fibreglass chairs and this

http://imagescommerce.bcentral.com/merchantfiles/4779737/Eames-LaChaise-A.jpg

lounge chair is awesome too. the leather lounge chair is so beautiful and comfortable.

like geeta most of my furniture is goiod trash/ junk.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 11:20 (twenty years ago)

dan you got that rocker for a good price! i think it's definately worth it!

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 11:22 (twenty years ago)

the best furniture is the stuff you find on the street on trash day! the upper east side and park slope are especially good for great junk finds if you live in NYC.

i used to have a backyard and would amble around on junk night to collect white plastic chairs for bbqs at my place. i must have picked up around 15 different discarded white chairs for free, they only needed slight mildew scrubbings.

― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 11:23 (twenty years ago)

aalto chairs:

http://www.aalto.com/Images/406%20webbed%20chair%20212sq.jpg

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 11:25 (twenty years ago)

One of my friends found a Jacobsen egg chair JUNKED in 1993. Luckily, she was an architecture student and carried it home, drooling.

Dumpster/skip diving utterly classic. I returned from Islington two weekends ago with a metre-high blown-glass modernist vase someone had just left by their skip. I also have an ex-junk modernist cube.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 11:37 (twenty years ago)

architecture students are known for their strength and overproductive salivary glands

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 11:40 (twenty years ago)

OK so I guess I would have to say CLASSIC if you can pick one up in a junk shop minus catpiss but DUD as part of that late-'90s NuLab interior design scheme where there's also beechwod and an indigo sofa ie. that look is now all over Hollyoaks 'third spaces'.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:02 (twenty years ago)

i just bought 4 old fibreglass herman miller-made eames shell chairs for my dining room. i am a cliche, like x-ray spex. i love them. but now i want it all: the lounger, the case study storage units, the fucking deck of cards. the nelson bench, the noguchi lamps, the whole nine yards. of course, i find it totally tacky and showroom-ish when others do their whole homes in "classics" but i am willing to make an exception for myself.

― chuck ray, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:04 (twenty years ago)

also: why oh why won't Muji open superstores on every corner and put the gap/ikea/etc. out of business? I love you, Muji.

― ray ray, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:08 (twenty years ago)

i kinda dont like any of the chairs in pictures on this thread.

maybe the aalto....

what does uit mean that i think these (i imagine enormously uncomfortable) chairs are way cooler?

http://www.terraingallery.org/Red-Blue-Chair.jpg

http://www.designmuseum.org/ddesignimg/58_4.jpg

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:10 (twenty years ago)

ive always wanted one of those 60s/70s fiberglass egg chairs. i prefer them hanging from the ceiling and completely oval but i wouldnt say no to this one made for the ipod w/ 'tactile sound'

http://site.inmod.com/images/graphics/egg_chair_splash.jpg

― sunny successor (katharine), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:12 (twenty years ago)

ignore hipster inside

― sunny successor (katharine), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:13 (twenty years ago)

see i find those egg chairs and the art pieces above much more silly and adolescent than the sturdy simplicity of the mighty eameses

― ray charles, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:15 (twenty years ago)

ray charles OTM... somehow.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:18 (twenty years ago)

I went to see an exhibition of Eames films (including two of the versions of Powers of Ten, woo) with an architect friend. Never before have I seen so many architects and designers drooling at once. Same guy has an Eames lounge/ottoman and a Noguchi coffee table that I sometimes lovingly put my feet on.

― mike h. (mike h.), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 12:52 (twenty years ago)

I went to see an exhibition of Eames films (including two of the versions of Powers of Ten, woo)

i once bought a mislabeled 16mm Powers of Ten reel on eBay for like, 12 dollars and flipped it an auction to some britishes for $350.

― jinx hijinks (sanskrit), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:09 (twenty years ago)

poor egg chair

http://images.burningman.com/gallery/grantor.5882.jpg

― sunny successor (katharine), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 13:55 (twenty years ago)

I had a bright-orange knockoff egg chair when I was little. We used to make it the captain's chair when we pretended to be Star Trek characters.

― Big Willy and the Twins (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:06 (twenty years ago)

egg chairs are austin powers/momus-level duds if you're over 11

― rayovac (Fritz), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 15:57 (twenty years ago)

the eames aesthetic is pretty great (though not completely independent of lower-brow stuff like russel wright and the general 40s vibe of west coast cool) and their films are totally great.

plastic injection and molded wood are nice ways to make furniture, too, but there's something about buying $500 plastic chairs and $3000 plywood loungers that seems to run completely counter to the "banana leaf" philosophy.

OTOH the much touted "primer in visual communications" is just nonsense.

― DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:16 (twenty years ago)

egg chairs are austin powers/momus-level duds if you're over 11
-- rayovac (rccol...) (webmail), Today 11:57 AM. (Fritz) (later)

wrong

― sunny successor (katharine), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

I brought an exhibition of eames films to Oberlin college.

The egg chair looks like an egg, the round chair used in the Prisoner is the Globe Chair.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

i've spent a lot of time looking at his (charles') architecture and the layman-level impression i got is that he wasn't as great an architect as you'd think (considering how much his case studies get talked about) but he made up for it with awesome interior design + landscape architecture skills.

― DEEDS NOT WORDS (vahid), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:21 (twenty years ago)

MOMUS-LEVEL DUDS?

Excuse me, I think you mean STEREOLAB. I live in an unfurnished water tower with none of this retro-90s retro-70s retro-50s nonsense going on in it.

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:31 (twenty years ago)

Momus, wouldn't you rather live here:

http://gizmodo.com/images/2006/04/spheres.jpg

― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Hand Crafted Wood/Fiberglass Spheres

(Eryn style) 3200mm (10’ 6”) diameter

Well-appointed interior with galley and loft bed - Sleeps 4 in 3 beds.
*

Microwave, sink and refrigerator
*

Plumbed and wired for 20 amp, 120/240 volt AC
*

Custom cast bronze door and window hardware
*

Custom interior finishing - optional
*

Prices from $150,000 US

http://www.freespiritspheres.com

― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:40 (twenty years ago)

I think of this stuff as "library furniture" since that's the only place I see it. So, classic of course. Libraries have the best style by default.

― Abbott (Abbott), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

I am in need of a nice eyeball, but not one strung up in the middle of nowhere. The nice thing about water towers is that they're handy for the art galleries. Sipping free wine at openings is better than eating probably-poisonous forest mushrooms.

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:48 (twenty years ago)

actually the Jabobsen Egg chair that Suzy referred to first is this very classic thing:

http://templatezone.com/rs/users/amy@spaziointeriors-com/egg.jpg

the one that is egg shaped and is usually refered to as the egg chair is pretty dud.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Hm my parents' house has a water tower and they're wondering whether to keep or demolish it cos it's just a lot of work to restore. Maybe I can change their minds....

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 16:59 (twenty years ago)

Momus, you could just hang it in between buildings in the city. You could rig up some kind of garage door opener to power lower the ladder. Swankest pad ever, mon ami!

― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 17:16 (twenty years ago)

yeah, the spherical home people are really missing out on the non-ewok market with that hippy website. those things would be awesome in a city, hanging from elevated train tracks or just rolling around in alleyways.

― harry indiana, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 17:25 (twenty years ago)

I'd decorate mine like a katamari and build an addition.

― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 17:27 (twenty years ago)

Where does the poop go?

― Bnad, Tuesday, 18 April 2006 17:36 (twenty years ago)

on the clouds.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 17:38 (twenty years ago)

did anyone see the last issue of vanity fair where they referred to brothers charles and ray eames?

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

i did. i sent them an email telling them to proof articles.

― renee, Wednesday, 19 April 2006 00:22 (twenty years ago)

I just visited that wooden sphere with my family - I think it was the same one, though it may have been modified, because I don't remember the window being recessed like that. Maybe there was another covering added over top, like a tinted contact lens.

Also,

http://www.toymania.com/334archives/mork/mork_carded.jpg

― Pangolino 2, Wednesday, 19 April 2006 01:37 (twenty years ago)

Woah how did I never make the connection that the Eameses that made the chairs are the same Eamses that made the films!?

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 01:50 (twenty years ago)

So is it EEmes or AYmes? When I first heard about them I swear the pronunciation of their name rhymed with dames, but now all I ever hear is EEmes.

Also I think that power of ten film is seriously overrated, but I love the furniture/architecture.

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 03:03 (twenty years ago)

EEmes.

― eames demetrios, Thursday, 20 April 2006 03:10 (twenty years ago)

ten years pass...

Holy shit, 'real' Eames lounge chairs from Hermann Miller are almost $5k now.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 29 July 2016 12:19 (nine years ago)

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