Eames Plastic Side Chair LSR Fully Upholstered Chair Vitra EXHIBITION PIECES

Comfortable location:  Eames Plastic Side Chair LSR Fully Upholstered Chair Vitra

The LSR chair appears repeatedly in historical photographs of the legendary Eames House in Pacific Palisades. It seems to have been an absolute favorite of Charles and Ray Eames. It therefore makes perfect sense to now offer the model as a side chair version – without armrests! 

No wonder, the lounge version of the Eames Plastic Chairs is a truly multifunctional piece of design history. The images show the chair both indoors and outdoors, illustrating how easily it can be repositioned. Its compact dimensions allow it to be used in small spaces, and thanks to the wide range of colors available, the chair can be perfectly integrated into various environments. The steel wire base has earned the nickname "Cat's Cradle." It provides a striking contrast to the monochrome seat shell.

The story of the Eames Plastic Chairs

One of the Eames Plastic Chairs, the DAW chair, was first presented in 1948 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York's "Low Cost Furniture Design" competition, where it won second place. Today, the Plastic Chairs have become classics, indispensable in private homes and public spaces. Yet, at the time of their creation, these design chairs were a true innovation. The novelty lay in the idea of a one-piece, ergonomically shaped seat shell.

 "The most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least" – Charles & Ray Eames absolutely lived up to this principle with their Plastic Chairs. This resulted in the first mass-produced, affordable plastic chairs with outstanding design. With the Plastic Chairs, Charles & Ray Eames revolutionized furniture history in the 1950s. European and American society was undergoing a period of upheaval after the war years. This also had an impact on interior design and lifestyles. With the DAW and the other Plastic Chairs, Charles & Ray Eames contributed to liberating living spaces from the prevailing rigidity and control. 

From America to Europe

In the early days of the Plastic Chairs, produced in the USA by Herman Miller in the 1940s, the designer chairs made their way across the Atlantic to Europe in the early 1950s, when Erika and Willi Fehlbaum saw an Eames chair in a shop window during a trip to the USA. 

Enthralled by the design of the plastic chair, the Vitra founders negotiated a license to sell the Eames Plastic Chairs in Europe. Ultimately, their efforts were successful, and Vitra became the licensed manufacturer of the chairs in Europe and Asia. To this day, Vitra remains the sole licensed manufacturer for this market. Throughout their lives, Charles and Ray Eames maintained a close relationship with Vitra. This is also reflected in the fact that Vitra owns their estate in the form of the Eames Archive. Even today, after the designers' deaths, Vitra strives to act in their spirit and constantly asks itself, "What would Charles and Ray Eames say?" when developing new collections. 

Charles and Ray Eames – design duo 

If you love design, you should know the Eameses. Many people immediately think of their most famous designs, such as the Eames Lounge Chair or the Eames Plastic Chair. The Eameses are among the most important figures in 20th-century design. Besides designing furniture, they also made films, took photographs, and curated exhibitions.

Material and format

Starting in January 2024, Vitra is committed to sustainability by manufacturing all Eames Plastic Chair shells from recycled post-consumer plastic. The shells are reinforced with minimal fiberglass for stability and quality, with the fiberglass content being 10% for an Eames Plastic Chair RE shell. The use of recycled packaging waste gives the shells minimal color pigmentation. The white color in Virgin Plastic is available until the end of 2024. The new Cotton White of the RE version is a natural white with the aforementioned pigments due to the manufacturing process.

Version:

• Base frame (new height) coated
• Base color basic dark (smooth)
• Hopsak cover material: 100% polyamide
• Upholstery color green/ivory
• seat shell color green
• Piping color basic dark
• Footrest glider basic dark