Muji Manufactured By Thonet
Thonet, the oldest furniture brand in the world and the German manufacturer of high-quality furnishings, is producing a simplified form of bentwood and tubular steel furniture for the Japanese retail chain Muji. The products are manufactured entirely at Thonet’s headquarters in Frankenberg, Germany to the company’s customary high quality standards.
The first models are reminiscent of those bentwood chairs that were the cornerstone on which the Thonet success story was established. The most famous bentwood chair, No. 14 is celebrating its 150th birthday and is probably the oldest industrial product still in production today. The chair is sold with range of tables that has a convincingly understated elegance, and it marries perfectly with the expressively styled chair. The English designer James Irvine, who is now working and living in Milan as creative director at Thonet, is responsible for the reinterpretation of the bentwood furniture.
In addition to the bentwood tradition, the “Muji manufactured by Thonet” collection also features the second revolutionary trend of the Thonet brand, the company’s tubular steel furniture tradition dating back to the 1920s. An iconographic tubular steel cantilever chair is sold alongside a desk and a range of side tables that have a convincingly effortless style and cool beauty like the original models. This collection was created by the German designer Konstantin Grcic.