The Cabbage Chair is created from a wrapped cylinder of pleated paper that is typically used to create the crisp, signature folds in Miyake’s garments. A roll of this by-product paper was slit vertically by Nendo’s designers, and a small nest of a chair was revealed by systematically peeling away each layer. Resins used during the original paper production process add strength and a bit of memory to the shaping process, while the pleats themselves give the chair elasticity and a springy cushioning.

Amazingly, the Cabbage Chair has absolutely no internal structure or framework, nor is it assembled with nails, screws, or additional textile elements. Reminiscent on some levels of Frank Gehry’s cardboard chairs, at least in terms of ‘layering as reinforcement’, this perhaps more free-form interpretation suggests rebirth as well as comfort derived from resourceful, shared, product life cycle designs. As Nendo has described, the Cabbage Chair fits (our) active, optimistic, and forward-moving ’21st century selves,’ the kind of people who, to borrow a concept Miyake expressed during a meeting with us, ‘don’t just wear clothes, but shed their skin’.

The XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake, will be at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo from 30 March to 6 July, 2008.

+ Nendo
+ XXI Century Man exhibit, curated by Issey Miyake

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