I just hit a serious black hole searching for 1. better images of this chair 2. the original source and well 3. maybe some nicely stylized interiors featuring this chair. These images are what I settled for. I’m feeling majorly distraught and possibly even more in love with this mystery chair? There are mini versions of it for children and even bananas, a rocker and my favorite the multicolor weave.
the acapulco chair
I was preparing a post about this fantastic chair for my blog. It’s a mexican design icon from the fifties. You can find some nice pics here:
http://www.sillasacapulco.com/
http://lasillaacapulco.blogspot.com/
And a special use at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid, by my friends http://www.langarita-navarro.com/
I love your blog. I also was a fan of Seesaw’s, so I’m happy you’re still here on the net…
Saludos desde España
The classic Acapulco Chair was designed in the 1950s in the Mexican beach town of the same name. While the chair is prolific in Mexico and exists in many different shapes and sizes, its original designer is unknown. Don’t worry Little Sis!
Sister the designer is unknown – that is some tragic shit.
Actually I have heard a better, though not necessarily more accurate story about the origin of the design. While it is the general consensus that there is no known designer, the birthplace is actually thought not to be in Acapulco as the name would suggest, but rather on the Caribbean coast somewhere in the Mayan riviera. Apparently some time in the late 40’s a French woman was traveling through the region during some of the hotter months of the year. Sitting in a solid backed chair, her shirt soaked through with sweat, she remarked at the beautifully woven Mayan hammocks and how fresh it is to lay in them with air reaching all parts of the body. She asked why the locals don’t make their gorgeous traditional hammocks into chairs. She submitted a crude design to a welder who went to work on a prototype of the chair, probably utilizing sisal rope for the weave. The design would be adapted, interpreted and transformed into a variety of shapes sizes over the years. Innit is now using the same materials and construction technique from this traditional design to make chairs, tables, loungers, ottomans, room dividers and more for contemporary furniture lovers around the world.
Thanks for the insight Paul. Did you get my email? Let’s collaborate!
http://www.greenpointworks.com/index.php?/project/the-acapulco-chair/