Poltrona Frau: timeless design icons

June 3, 2021 – Poltrona Frau

Founded in Turin in 1912 by Renzo Frau, Poltrona Frau has been one of the greatest Italian home furnishing excellences for more than a century: a perfect balance between tradition and innovation which gave birth to timeless design icons. Let’s find them out together.

Poltrona Frau was able to internationalize Made in Italy as a brand. It became an Italian symbol of design and luxury. Thanks to the beauty and elegance of its products, but also to the craftsmanship, modernity and constant innovation.

The brand’s goal has always been creating high quality products. Even the materials used, such as Pelle Frau® leather, have become iconic materials.

So let’s talk about the products that have survived the “test of time”, becoming icons of timeless design.

Chester armchair and sofa

At first an armchair and then a sofa, Renzo Frau presented Chester in the first catalog of 1912. It is inspired by the sofas and armchairs that populated the clubs and country houses of Edwardian England in those years.

The Chester sofa is synonymous with classic sofa. It stands out for the plissé of the armrests and the rich capitonné workmanship of the mantle entirely handmade.

The historic model is renewed in the 2021 collection in an unprecedented curved version that draws sinuous and architectural serpentines in the domestic space. The distinctive features of the classic Chester sofa are re-proposed in a lighter form, limiting the precious capitonné workmanship to the back, inserting elements without armrests to obtain different configurations and additional accessories such as tables and lamps.

To discover the characteristics of Poltrona Frau Chester sofa and armchair, visit the product sheet.

1919 by Poltrona Frau

This armchair takes its name from the date it was designed. It is said to have been custom designed by Renzo Frau for Filiberto Ludovico di Savoia, Duke of Pistoia. The small arm lectern was in fact intended to support the ashtray of the duke, well known as a cigar smoker.

Despite the specific commissioning, the 1919 armchair became one of the first and greatest successes of Poltrona Frau. It is inspired by the bergère model, to which it adds the strength of the characteristic capitonné on the back.

The re-edition called “2019” is signed by Roberto Lazzeroni.

“The right attitude (to revisit an icon) is the one that allows you to do a series of operations, all in a very light way, the result of which makes you say “it seems to have always been like this”. As happened for the 1919, redesigned after a hundred years: if you analyze the “mother” piece by piece and the 2019, you will find nothing alike, yet, side by side, they are clearly the same armchair. The proportions and ergonomics have been revised with surgical precision to make them suitable for today’s man.”

Reed here the product sheets of 1919 and 2019.

Vanity Fair Poltrona Frau’s soul

The red Poltrona Frau Vanity Fair armchair is the brand’s icon par excellence, as well as the archetype of the modern armchair.

Firstly produced in 1930, as model 904, it is now produced in numbered editions. This relaxation armchair embodies all values of timeless elegance, quality of materials and craftsmanship that, over the years, have made the Poltrona Frau brand famous.

Vanity Fair has also been revised by Lazzeroni, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary since its creation, becoming Vanity Fair XC. Find out more about it here.

Go to the product sheet of Vanity Fair and Vanity Fair XC

Lyra

The Lyra leather armchair appears for the first time in the 1934 in Poltrona Frau catalog, as a variant of the 1916 Lira fabric model.

The rounded backrest, the leather-covered nails that finish it, the deep seat and comfortable armrests reveal the formal characteristics of the gentlemen’s club, the fumoir or the Victorian lounge.

Lyra, however, stands out for its smaller proportions and for its rounded and harmonious shapes, which recall the sinuous lines of the instrument after which it is named.

All features of Lyra armchair can be found here.

Sanluca

Designed in 1961 by the two brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Sanluca is a “project by subtraction” led by “only what is strictly necessary“, to quote the master Achille Castiglioni.

The armchair is in fact a work broken down into separate elements: back, seat, headrest and sides. The result is a combination of apparent opposites: a sinuous and angular line, dynamic and sculptural, but also an anticipation of the principles of ergonomics. In fact, the seat offers the body three points of support that correspond to the needs of the human spine.

Initially the Sanluca armchair was not fully understood

“Few understood, at the time, its revolutionary effect: what appears to be pure form is actually pure function”
Marco Romanelli – curator of the exhibition for the limited edition of 2018

MUST HAVE: Sanluca limited edition is on promotion in the Poltrona Frau Outlet Online!

If you are interested in the classic Sanluca armchair, you can find it here.

Archibald by Poltrona Frau

Designed in 2009 by Jean-Marie Massaud, the Archibald armchair has already become an icon of the brand with its perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality.

The seat is wide and deep, counterbalanced by thin steel feet that give it momentum and lightness. With its comfortable and enveloping backrest, the Archibald armchair by Poltrona Frau is almost an invitation to meditation. The leather upholstery embellishes the armchair with vertical folds and contrasting stitching able to make the armchair even less formal.

A curiosity: the ear of the armrest, in the initial idea, was designed to be closed by a button.

Archibald is a product family, from armchairs to stools, discover them all here.

“This brand is material, alive, both for the use of leather and for the importance it attaches to dialogue and design. This dialogue gives life to objects that follow one another in the course of history. It is a dialogue linked to the artisans who continue to replicate the gestures that belong to other times, and to the designers, architects, researchers who continually bring the brand to sublimate and surpass itself. This is the identity bond that transpires between these projects and that I wanted to assert and underline by sight and touch.”
Noè Duchaufour-Lawrance – Curator of the DNA Poltrona Frau exhibition in Ferrara

Poltrona Frau Online shop: find all the iconic armchairs, but also Poltrona Frau beds and sofas, in our online catalog. Contact us to ask for Poltrona Frau prices and all the offers to get your Poltrona Frau outlet prices.