Audrey chair by Chris Bangle

Meeting a car designer at the presentation of a chair that is apparently so far away from the dynamism of a car, is not a common experience even during Milan Design Week. But in this reinterpretation of the Fendi Casa Audrey armchair, made for charity together with Foglizzo hides, one finds in large part the wish to dare that has always inspired Bangle’s work, from the seat covers/sleeping bags of the 1983 Opel Junior, to the cuts on the fenders of the 1994 Fiat Coupe, to the bold surfaces that made him famous with the BMWs of the early 2000s.
Here, on the soft, rather vintage layout of the starting piece, we have alternating hides of different yields: dark nappa, portions with gold highlights, laser perforated inserts like arabesques and a magenta horse hide flap that is revealed by lifting the lining. Everything is crossed by gilded hinges that break up the surfaces and play down the classical shape, creating a rather rockish pattern and giving the armchair an almost mechanical expressiveness.