by Covering an international trade fair can be daunting. In a matter of days, the jet-lagged correspondent must tour as many showrooms as possible hoping to score enough key interviews to identify some meaningful takeaways. The sheer size of exhibition halls requires a plan for making the time count.
Recalling the many years covering the Scandinavian Furniture Fair in Copenhagen, I tried to visit as many of the Top 10 manufacturers as ranked by sales volume and, separately, as ranked by reputation for leading design. If I could get enough of each, I felt there was a shot at presenting a meaningful summary of how the fair might matter.
Prominent in that second Top 10 was always Fritz Hansen, which perennially rolled out fresh takes on Nordic design and, more specifically, Danish modern. The 150-plus-year-old brand is known for iconic pieces such as the Egg and Series 7 chairs designed by Arne Jacobsen, among many others, and the company’s approach to market introductions was always tightly disciplined.
So, I was pleased to find in my “IN” box last week news of the latest additions to the Fritz Hansen line, a line that covers indoor furniture, outdoor, lighting and home accessories. Mostly line extensions, the new pieces are from the minds of Cecilie Manz and Jaime Hayon, two very different designers with their own ideas about modernism. Hayon has worked with Fitz Hansen for nearly 15 years, Manz for the last decade or so.
Re-creating the magic of a showroom tour at a Scandianvian furniture fair, I’ll introduce you to some of the signature pieces. Then, as is customary on one of these tours, we’ll have a coffee to spill some “tea,” as the college kids call it.
‘Follow me’
First up are new pieces for Hayon’s Analog series that is now 10 years old. Hitting retail floors and online next month are a coffee table and a side table to join Analog dining, pieces that add two shapes to the series’ geometry.
The adjectives the Spanish-born Hayon uses to describe the Analog are “organic,” “fresh,” and “harmonious.” They are pieces that seek to blend art and design to striking effect. Also a goal was to achieve artistry without sacrificing functionality, a hallmark of Scan design in general.
Ah, what you can do with a square, a circle, an oval and a clear vision for your modern.
“The Analog series exemplifies Hayon’s playful aesthetic, blending fantasy with functionality,” said Christian Andresen, head of design at Fritz Hansen.
Analog’s coffee table is available with tabletops in either a clear lacquered walnut or a light beige ash, each on legs of solid walnut attached at an angle using aluminum trumpet joints. The new side table will be offered in solid oak.
Also new from Hayon is the Fri sofa, a companion to the Fri lounge chair and stool introduced in 2015. The new 2.5-seater combines aluminum legs and a wood base with molded foam that aims for a sense of sculpture in space, according to Hayon. Inspired by seating he watched people use in an American Airlines lounge, the Fri is meant to embody “openness, softness and simplicity,” according to the Fritz Hansen press kit.
New with the Fri sofa are two additional covers.
Cecilie Manz
This summer at Home News Now, we have been spotlighting women in furniture design. The Fritz Hansen releases are an opportunity to celebrate the now 30-year career of Cecilie Manz, who has again collaborated with the company, this time for new poufs and the Monolit chair.
The daughter of artists, Manz not surprisingly features an artistic aesthetic in all of her designs, which, regardless of the project or even the client, she sees as parts of “one big, ongoing story . . . linked or related in terms of their ideas, materials and aesthetics, across time and function,” she said.
According to Andresen, Hayon works on location at Fritz Hansen with the company’s design team, sketching out and iterating with the team, fleshing out the designs in real time on the spot. In contrast, according to her bio at FritzHansen.com, Manz always works alone in her Copenhagen studio, producing drawings on paper, then iterating the shapes in her workshop in the studio’s basement. This sense of solitude is expressed in her work.
Manz’s mission is, in her words, to unite “the Scandinavian tradition of simplicity with a modern, international expression.” Her “form follows function” approach seeks to achieve understated, serene beauty.
Manz’s designs for Fritz Hansen have also included the Essay dining table and, more recently, the minuscule lounge chair. Following a typically Danish furniture tradition, both designs combine curiosity and innovation with sculpted elegance and soft forms.
Let’s get to her new pieces. First up is the Monolit chair, which expresses the designer’s monastic approach to design by building in personal space. I absolutely love that. The upholstered chair, shown here in a dining configuration but apt in any number of settings, keys on a round, protective shell that enfolds the user.
The trim, tailored profile is achieved with a plywood shell punctuated with full-grain leather piping to define the contour of the seat.
“I wanted to do a nice, comfortable and useful chair that didn’t take up too much space and would simply work well,” Manz said. “I wanted it to be really reduced, drawn like a quick sketch, without too many details. I wanted people to read it as one shape, a monolith, but in two defined parts, top and base.”
Descriptives Fritz Hansen uses for the Monolit include “understated luxury,” “comfortable and refined” and “a space changer.”
Monolit will be offered in two heights, one for dining and one for use as a lounge or meeting chair, and in a dozen different textile-and-color combinations. The horseshoe-shaped base is finished in metal for stability and cleaning, and the piping comes in full-grain leather or matched to the upholstery.
Last on our tour is Manz’s new poufs, a product category that has seemingly exploded since the pandemic. She has updated her CM Pouf series introduced in 2016 with new colorways and textile combinations. These introductions replace Fritz Hansen’s existing pouf lineup.
New covers are steel gray, pale yellow, natural, gray, warm sand and a “pure” leather, and each base is in a natural linen canvas.
As we close out the tour and head over to the coffee bar, I might mention that in addition to Manz and Hayon, Fritz Hansen has rather famously collaborated with Arne Jacobsen, Hans J. Wegner, Piero Lissoni and Poul Kjærholm, among others. The line is sold in 85 or so countries, including flagship stores and showrooms in New York and San Francisco.
(What follows is a completely fictional snippet of showroom conversation that in its fiction attempts to capture what might be discussed were this an actual showroom visit.)
“Thanks for the coffee and biscuits. It’s been three years now since you acquired Skagerak, the outdoor furniture style leader. How’s that integration going?”
“It’s been huge. Got us into an entirely new product category, one that’s brought us some really exciting, lucrative projects, especially on the contract side.”
“What about sales overall? Reading through Fritz Hansen annual reports, I know 2022 didn’t do you guys any favors.”
“That was a tough year, yeah, but it was tough for a lot of companies. It’s still tough. And it’s a global thing, right? Between the war in Ukraine, the Middle East, inflation, market uncertainty, the whole U.S.-China tension — it’s rough sledding out there. But Asia has been a real bright spot for us.”
“Scan modern is a perfect fit with a lot of Asian design and interiors, I would think. Is that the primary reason the brand is doing so well in, say, Korea? Singapore?”
“Absolutely, and the Skagerak purchase has been a big part of new business for us throughout Asia. That influence goes both ways, too. Our aesthetic is informed by Asian minimalism.”
“Well, thanks so much for your time. The new pieces are stunning.”
“Thanks for coming in. You’ll be at the cocktail reception tonight? Cecilie and Jaime will be there.”
“Wouldn’t miss it. I’ve wanted to meet Cecilie for some time. When she was asked whether she considered herself a role model for women in furniture design, she snapped back, ‘Why only women?’ Respect.”
“I’ll make sure you get to speak with her. Skål.”
Photo from Arne Jacobsen
