Louis Vuitton Dining Chairs

Known for their sleek, sophisticated interiors and modern, sculptural furniture, Canadian designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, who collaborate as Yabu Pushelberg, continue to push the boundaries of contemporary style. “We’re always focused on what’s next and continually search for the new and innovative as we strive to conceive the memorable experiences of tomorrow,” says the couple and design duo.

Yabu and Pushelberg met when they were students at Ryerson University’s School of Interior Design (now Toronto Metropolitan University), in Toronto, graduating in 1976. They didn’t meet again until bumping into each other a few years later while both were looking for studio spaces. That chance meeting led to the founding of the company Yabu Pushelberg, in 1980, with a focus on interior design.

Their first major project was in 1984, designing Canadian fashion retailer Club Monaco’s first stores in Toronto. Yabu Pushelberg evolved from strictly interior design to adopt a multidisciplinary approach in subsequent years. The firm has since grown to a team of 100-plus creatives and professionals with offices in Toronto and New York, designing buildings, landscapes, interiors, lighting, graphics, objects and furniture. 

Yabu and Pushelberg have collaborated with many notable designers and international furniture manufacturers. For Italian silverware maker Pampaloni, the duo designed a series of tableware, serveware and home goods. Other collaborations include dining chairs for Italian manufacturer Hinge; the curvy Surf sofa for Molteni&C.; and for Glas Italia, the all-glass, bowl-shaped Nacre coffee table. Yabu Pushelberg has also designed several independent pieces such as lounge chairs, sofas, stools and console tables, to name a few.

Yabu and Pushelberg’s list of accomplishments and accolades is extensive. They have created interiors for Midtown Manhattan’s Park Hyatt hotel, Bergdorf Goodman in New York, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the Waldorf Astoria Beijing, the Rosewood Guangzhou, Edition hotels in New York, London and Miami Beach and several boutiques for Louis Vuitton, Carolina Herrera and David Yurman. The pair were also appointed Officers of the Order of Canada for their contributions to design and have been inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame.

On 1stDibs, discover a range of George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg seating, tables, case pieces and mirrors.

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.