My dear friend, Jorge Oller from Costa Rica, and I share many interests, good wine, great music, and Lovemarks amongst them. As I have posted before, we also have a passion for chairs. Over the years, chairs have been a fascination to me and a few weeks back I took possession of the Villain Chair. This chair first appeared in Sean Connery’s Bond adventure You Only Live Twice. It was Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s key prop, along with the Persian cat and the eye scar Donald Pleasance wore in the part. Now SUCK UK have just introduced the chair in a gorgeous Cadbury Dairy Milk colored leather with 20 aluminum panels angled to cushion you in decadent, criminal luxury. Naturally it also swivels for maximum malevolence.
This chair now has pride of place in my TriBeCa loft alongside La Chaise from Charles and Ray Eames, Shiro Kuramata’s ‘How High is the Moon’ chair, and hanging from the loft ceiling is the Eero Aarnio Bubble Chair. On the deck I have a range of Frank Miller’s 1960’s iconic garden furniture, alongside the more up-to-date Philippe Starck Bubble Club armchair and sofa.
In Auckland, I have a bunch of chairs from Ross Lovegrove, David Trubridge, Marcel Breuer, Philippe Starck (including the Royalton Sofas and armchairs I first saw when that hotel opened a few years ago), the classic Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Chair and Day Bed, Verner Panton Heart chair and, my favorite, the Milana chair from Jean Nouvel.
In Grasmere, I have Eero Aarnio’s Ball chair, along with two amazing Peter Blake deckchairs Ro surprised me with for my birthday last month.
When I visited Jorge in his home in San Juan, Costa Rica, a couple a years back, it felt like home away from home with many of the same pieces scattered around Jorge’s home and the agency. He’s too warm and friendly to have the Villain Chair though.
p.s. You can see most of these on www.regencyshop.com and the Villain Chair on www.suck.uk.com.
