Moroso Gentry

Known for a legacy of material innovation and quality craftsmanship, Moroso produces sophisticated upholstered furniture for the hospitality sector and the luxury residential market. Since 1952, the manufacturer has been merging research and its tradition of forward-thinking design to create iconic sofas, chairs, tables and other furnishings.

Moroso was founded in Udine, Italy, by husband-and-wife team Agostino and Diana Moroso. Now under the artistic direction of the founders’ daughter, Patrizia Moroso, the manufacturer is one of Italy’s last family-owned furniture companies. Since its mid-century inception, Moroso has collaborated with many distinguished designers.

Swiss-Argentinian product designer Alfredo Häberli fashioned the Taba collection, including a sofa, two armchairs and several ottomans. Spanish architect and furniture maker Patricia Urquiola’s contribution to the Moroso family of products is vast, spanning a relationship that started in 1998. This includes the design of Patrizia Moroso’s private residence in northern Italy and a Lake Como hotel where the texture-rich, naturally hued guest suites also contain a selection of Urquiola furniture. Israeli designer Ron Arad is known for working with metal and for his thoughtful integration of technology in his furnishings. His Soft Heart rocking chair for the brand is built on a steel core. In 2009, Moroso partnered with fashion brand Diesel as well to create a furniture line featuring informal, distinctive and comfortable pieces.

Moroso is committed to environmental sustainability. In 1994 the company was awarded ISO 9001 production process certification by the International Organization for Standardization and ISO 14001 five years later.

Moroso’s furniture has been a part of exhibitions at museums worldwide, including MoMA in New York, Le Palais de Tokyo, Grand Palais in Paris, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. They have also appeared in the Venice Biennale.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Moroso chairs, armchairs, tables and dining room chairs.

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.

Black leather, silk velvet cushions, breathable bouclé fabric — when shopping for antique or vintage sofas, today’s couch connoisseurs have much to choose from in terms of style and shape. But it wasn’t always thus. 

The sofa is typically defined as a long upholstered seat that features a back and arms and is intended for two or more people. While the term “couch” comes from the Old French couche, meaning to lie down, and sofa has Eastern origins, both are forms of divan, a Turkish word that means an elongated cushioned seat. Bench-like seating in Ancient Greece, which was padded with soft blankets, was called klinai. No matter how you spell it, sofa just means comfort, at least it does today.

In the early days of sofa design, upholstery consisted of horsehair or dried moss. Sofas that originated in countries such as France during the 17th century were more integral to decor than they were to comfort. Like most Baroque furnishings from the region, they frequently comprised heavy, gilded mahogany frames and were upholstered in floral Beauvais tapestry. Today, options abound when it comes to style and material, with authentic leather offerings and classy steel settees. Plush, velvet chesterfields represent the platonic ideal of coziness. 

Vladimir Kagan’s iconic sofa designs, such as the Crescent and the Serpentine — which, like the sectional sofas of the 1960s created by furniture makers such as Harvey Probber, are quite popular among mid-century modern furniture enthusiasts — showcase the spectrum of style available to modern consumers. Those looking to make a statement can turn to Studio 65’s lip-shaped Bocca sofa, which was inspired by the work of Salvador Dalí. Elsewhere, the furniture of the 1970s evokes an era when experimentation ruled, or at least provided a reason to break the rules. Just about every area of society felt a sudden urge to be wayward, to push boundaries — and buttons. Vintage leather sofas of that decade are characterized by a rare blending of the showy and organic.

With so many options, it’s important to explore and find the perfect furniture for your space. Paying attention to the lines of the cushions as well as the flow from the backrest into the arms is crucial to identifying a cohesive new piece for your home or office.

Fortunately, with styles from every era — and even round sofas — there’s a luxurious piece for every space. Deck out your living room with an Art Deco lounge or go retro with a nostalgic '80s design. No matter your sitting vision, the right piece is waiting for you in the expansive collection of unique sofas on 1stDibs.