1stDibs ExpertAugust 29, 2024
Philippe Starck designed the Louis Ghost chair for Kartell in 2002. The chair is a postmodern take on the classic Louis XVI armchair, a style that emerged under the fraught reign of French King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. This style represented the birth of neoclassicism in France and was characterized by a relative restraint compared to the Rococo flourishes of previous eras. The second half of the chair’s name refers to its materiality. It wasn’t Starck’s first plastic chair for Kartell, but it was the first time it could use a single polycarbonate plastic mold in the process, creating a structure completely free of joints. Formally, Starck distilled the geometry of his antique reference to its main elements: the oval-shaped backrest, curved armrests and straight legs. On 1stDibs, shop a collection of Philippe Starck Louis Ghost chairs.