Marcel Wanders Portable Lounge Chair for Louis Vuitton

Marcel Wanders folding lounge chair for Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades

Marcel Wanders’ Lounge Chair, presented at Design Miami, is a recent addition to Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades showcase. The series is a special collection of foldable furniture and travel accessories, created in collaboration with international designers.

Marcel Wanders Portable Lounge Chair for Louis Vuitton

Marcel Wanders lounge chair for Louis Vuitton

Along with other world renown designers, Marcel Wanders has created a one-of-a-kind product for the showcase. Louis Vuitton has built a brand on differentiated sophistication, crafting supremely luxurious travel items with style and surprise that have stood the test of time. The challenge of creating a luxurious piece that embodies the illusion of travel and elevating freedom to an art form is what drew Marcel to participate in this extraordinary event.

Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades Miami 2015-16 Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades collection at Design Miami

The object itself is an unfolding and portable oasis for relaxation. With caramel leather color on the outside, and iconic pink, flesh tone of suede inside, three individual modules fit into one another like a puzzle. As an homage to designer, Joe Colombo and his Tube Lounge, but with a very different shape and functionality, the Louis Vuitton object can be reconfigured in order for the pieces that are sensual to the touch to reveal three distinct solutions – a chaise longue, a lounge chair and a pouf.

Louis Vuitton folding lounge chair detail

Elegant belts and straps, along with the matrioska stapling feature, allow the piece to be portable like a high-end quality travel bag and to associate with the unique, holistic travel experience for which Louis Vuitton is known.

Marcel adds, “Louis Vuitton is a brand that truly understands form, function, material and craftsmanship, and most importantly, the connection with the human spirit. We have always seen Louis Vuitton as the benchmark of what it means to love your craft, supported by a heritage of quality and excellence that is undeniable”.

From the beginning of the project, Marcel wanted to seamlessly incorporate the design sensibility of Louis Vuitton with his own. Marcel explains, “The foundation of our object was exploration, mobility and adventure that have been an integral component of the Louis Vuitton brand since its inception. The countless pieces of enduring luggage they have created are what travel in general, and a nomadic lifestyle specifically, call for – objects with purpose and meaning. Our charge to ourselves was to create with logic but to keep the dream inside. I wanted to make something that connects to the idea of the Nomad, but that is functional, transient, and of course, beautiful.”

louis vuitton portable lounge chair by Marcel Wanders

While this is a substantial piece, that maintains considerable size, it is designed in a way that makes it very light, yet durable. Closed, it sits stable, mimicking a bag featuring a handle. With a gesture to Miami Beach’s historically rebellious colorful architecture, Marcel designed a second Lounge Chair created of a turquoise leather called Ocean Drive Inspiration.

LV portable lounge chair in turquoise by Marcel Wanders

These fun, playful pieces are the perfect way to relax as the intimate contoured shapes support body and soul. Whether on the beach, or on a deck enjoying the sun, this mobile object of travel is just the thing needed to unwind. Marcel adds, “It’s fun, it’s a bit playful. It uses its capacity to be a bit playful and I’m really excited that we found a way to make it really lightweight.”

There are now 17 Objets Nomades – from a hammock to a foldable stool to lights – all in noble materials and available as limited editions or experimental prototypes. Always reinventing itself, Louis Vuitton has collaborated with some of the most creative up-and-coming and established designers working today: Patricia Urquiola, Maarten Baas, the Campana Brothers, Barber and Osgerby, Damien Langlois-Meurinne, Atelier Oï, Nendo, Gwenaël Nicolas, Raw Edges, and Marcel Wanders.

information and images courtesy of Louis Vuitton and Marcel Wanders