The “WINK” Chair is the new Eames Lounge!
Let’s talk about it: Toshiyuki Kita and his “WINK”chair. Here is the man below and his chair following, in all their glory.
Designer Toshiyuki Kita.
Kita's "WINK" Chair.
I have been on a pointed 70s-80s post-modern design kick for some time and have lately been collecting those decade’s interiors and architecture books with obsession. I dream and delight in my ideas of the most silly, zonky, crazy, Memphis-patterned looks. In my enthusiastic assembling of vintage home books, I have noticed a star: the “WINK” chair! It appears wherever I go in my design travels, and seems that everyone from Pasadena to Stuttgart who had their interiors staged and shot in those glossy pages had one (sometimes four) of these lounges!
"WINK" Chair in its many flavors.
Kita’s “WINK” chair was produced in 1980 by the beloved Italian Manufacturer Cassina. In 1981, the chair was selected for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Throughout the years, countless art and design institutions have followed suit. Click this link to learn more about the life and times of Kita and “WINK.”
An exclusive version of the "WINK" Chair from Cassina.
Check out this example covered in Marimekko!
"WINK" chair + Marimekko mash-up!
Kita’s intention was that the “armchair…adapts itself to the shape of the person.” Some features of the “WINK”: it slices, it dices, it lays out, it sits up! The head supports pose and flex to accommodate different postures. The sections are traditionally treated with different fabric colors which offer endless possibilities in an interior. I love the versatility, casuality, industrial details, and possibilities of this chair.
Oh man! My favorite treatment yet! Bonkers! It's sold.
I will be happy to relay all my most favorite 80s interiors books to those of you who request titles, authors, publishers. So many of these tomes feature exciting designers yet to REdiscover. Ask me!