L’Invitée is a minimal chair designed by Milan and Paris-based atelier Episode Studio. Episode Studio is a young product design studio created in 2018 by Nathan Baraness and Marina Daguet. Due to space constraints in dense cities, the designers wanted to create a folding chair with a new perspective, focused on comfort. The challenge for the designers was to make a chair that would stand out and be comfortable, all the while keeping some kind of harmony with other chairs. The chair also had to be affordable since it is not an everyday object. As a result, the designer chose materials such as beech wood and cotton canvas, focusing on making them as attractive as possible through details and assembly. The cotton is stretched out to create a cushion and bring comfort without using padding or foam; the object is less polluting, lighter and more affordable this way. Here, the technique used is inspired by frames for paintings and rope weaving from some vintage chairs, like the chairs made by the Shakers in the 18th century. Superimposing wood bars allowed me to create different heights and to stretch the fabric and so, by using two entangled fabric rings, the visual result is that of a soft cushion.
Photography by Julien Deceroi