Trade Test Article

TEST Three of Eileen Gray's most luxurious designs are now available in an appropriately elegant upholstery fabric: velvet. An exquisite quality of Italian-made cotton velvet made by the renowned fabric house Dedar that is soft, versatile and hard-wearing, in a palette of 69 colours comprising striking, traditional and neutral shades. This gives these pieces a totally new character, providing a much greater level of softness and comfort plus the opportunity to incorporate them into a much wider range of colour schemes.

Eileen Gray's Lota sofa was a development of the piece she designed for the Madame Mathieu-Levy's apartment on the Rue de Lota in Paris in 1924. She achieved her desire for dual usage by allowing the removal of the loose cushions and one of the end boxes (therefore these are on castors) so the sofa serves as a bed. Her love of lacquer is expressed by its use on the end boxes - all in black or with a contrasting colour on the sides and top.

Over the course of the past fifty years, the average body height has increased by almost 10 centimetres. Therefore, we now offer Eileen Gray's Day Bed in a larger version - Grand. Designed for Miss Gray's beautiful Villa E1027 on the French Riviera, the Day Bed also fulfils a dual function and furthermore allows guests to sit facing any direction. The new velvet upholstery option works particularly well with the chic matt black frame.

Miss Gray used her iconic Bibendum chair to great effect in both the Rue de Lota apartment and in Villa E1027. The plump rolls of upholstery evoke 'Monsieur Bibendum', the pneumatic mascot of Michelin Tyres created by Marius Rossillon for the Lyon Exhibition of 1894, and are well-suited to velvet. The effect is particularly striking when paired with a matt black frame.