Platner Furniture “Revisited” in Architectural Digest France

In an effort to refresh the time-tested looks of midcentury modern furniture, the French edition of Architectural Digest reupholstered a series of iconic chairs in intricate patterned upholstery for “Revisited Icons of Design,” an October photo feature. Floral and graphic fabrics in vivid colors were used to realign recognizable designs to an ornate Baroque setting, among them a Lounge Chair and Ottoman designed by Warren Platner for Knoll. Embracing graceful wire curves and a more expressive modernism, Platner created a lounge collection in 1966 that brings immediate elegance to any interior.

“I began to think about what I thought furniture, specifically a chair, really might be, starting with the philosophy that it isn’t going to be aggressively technological, or aggressively handicraft,” Platner once reflected. “I, as a designer, felt there was room for the kind of decorative, gentle, graceful kind of design that appeared in period style like Louis XV, but it could have a more rational base instead of being applied decoration.”

Reupholstered in a floral silk from Élitis and a graphic jacquard by Japanese designer Akira Minagawa for Kvadrat, the feature amplifies the sumptuous qualities of the Platner Collection and brings the furniture slightly closer to the decorative French stylings that had originally inspired the designer.