Dig It Chair In Tiger Jacquard Velvet

Transcending classification, Gio Pagani’s furniture designs span several styles in an eclectic expression of ongoing artistry. Forever evolving, Pagani draws inspiration from history, fashion and social movements to imbue his furniture with symbolism unique to each collection.

Maison GIOPAGANI, GIOPAGANI Couture and GIOPAGANI Atelier are the three main branches that make up Pagani’s namesake brand. While Maison is the creative hub for all things architectural and interior design, Couture focuses on furniture design, with Atelier serving as the physical space in which to display Pagani’s designs.

GIOPAGANI Couture previewed at the 2015 edition of Milan Design Week before fully showcasing its furniture the following year at the Atelier. Categorized into Capsule Collections, each of Pagani’s design series embodies a different style and theme. 

One Capsule Collection, Senza Fine, is an ode to Italian design culture, emphasizing bold color and patterns, while another, Sartoria, draws from the fashion world as a sort of “haute couture” furniture collection centered on specific material choices. A third, Chat Noir, meets Paris in a very Art Nouveau–inspired collection, while Éclat D’eau introduces Art Deco elements into its lighting designs. Illogica Allegria is a second lighting collection — this time, featuring Murano glass and metal in modern designs.

“I often see myself as a tailor, a figure who, entering deeply into the customer’s culture, tries to better interpret his story . . . in an excellent way,” Pagani has said of his bespoke interiors and custom furnishings.

He designed interiors for both of the Rock restaurants on the island of Sardinia and led the redesign of Drogheria Parini on Via della Spiga in Milan. A collaboration with innovative wallpaper company Wall&decò introduced new energy and perspective to the use of contemporary wallpaper, tactfully bringing it back into the fold of interior design.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of GIOPAGANI seating, tables and lighting.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”

Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.

Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.

Chairs are an indispensable component of your home and office. Can you imagine your life without the vintage, new or antique chairs you love?

With the exception of rocking chairs, the majority of the seating in our homes today — Windsor chairs, chaise longues, wingback chairs — originated in either England or France. Art Nouveau chairs, the style of which also originated in those regions, embraced the inherent magnificence of the natural world with decorative flourishes and refined designs that blended both curved and geometric contour lines. While craftsmanship and styles have evolved in the past century, chairs have had a singular significance in our lives, no matter what your favorite chair looks like.

“The chair is the piece of furniture that is closest to human beings,” said Hans Wegner. The revered Danish cabinetmaker and furniture designer was prolific, having designed nearly 500 chairs over the course of his lifetime. His beloved designs include the Wishbone chair, the wingback Papa Bear chair and many more.

Other designers of Scandinavian modernist chairs introduced new dynamics to this staple with sculptural flowing lines, curvaceous shapes and efficient functionality. The Paimio armchair, Swan chair and Panton chair are vintage works of Finnish and Danish seating that left an indelible mark on the history of good furniture design.

“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts,” said Ray Eames. 

Visionary polymaths Ray and Charles Eames experimented with bent plywood and fiberglass with the goal of producing affordable furniture for a mass market. Like other celebrated mid-century modern furniture designers of elegant low-profile furnishings — among them Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Finn Juhl — the Eameses considered ergonomic support, durability and cost, all of which should be top of mind when shopping for the perfect chair. The mid-century years yielded many popular chairs.

The Eameses introduced numerous icons for manufacturer Herman Miller, such as the Eames lounge chair and ottoman, molded plywood dining chairs the DCM and DCW (which can be artfully mismatched around your dining table) and a wealth of other treasured pieces for the home and office. 

A good chair anchors us to a place and can become an object of timeless appeal. Take a seat and browse the rich variety of vintage, new and antique chairs on 1stDibs today.