“Why buy a new chair when you can dress up the one you have?” asked Dutch design studio Bernotat&Co when the company presented its Chair Wear collection in Milan Design Week 2012. It proved to be a popular range and so Bernotat&Co have put into production a prêt-a-porter collection of Chair Wear, a selection of favorites from their initial ‘Haute-Couture Collection’ of dress-up fashion for chairs.
Bernotat&Co explain the concept: “The idea of dressing up chairs evolved while working on the Triennial Chair for Gispen. This chair has a separate cushion in the back, which allows it to be upholstered in two different kinds of fabrics, in endless combinations.With Chair Wear, the idea is taken even further: we looked at upholstery as a separate item, as clothing for chairs, specially designed and custom-made for this purpose. For this purpose, the chairs are dressed up with unexpected textiles, ranging from hightech to industrial to traditional. All of them provide a soft contrast to the hard, basic chairs forming the framework.”