Photo ©VG&P
Designed for Very Good & Proper (VG&P), Genie is an armchair with steel frame and a textile sling seat and back, and wooden arms. Structurally it’s a very minimal chair, with each elements of the chair having structural functions.
We wanted to avoid the use of PU foams that are so common in upholstered furniture, and were exploring ways to make non rigid seating surfaces and VG&P were on the same page. We suggested a sling chair with rounded outline, taking inspirations from Aalto’s Paimio chair and Breuer Isokon chair. The profile references to classic armchairs soften the impression of potentially rather hard materiality, the steel frame almost disappears and supports the seat like a fabric draped on an invisible lounge chair.
Photo ©VG&P
London made
Genie chair is 100% manufactured in the UK. Wooden parts are made in-house at their Walthamstow workshop, and the fabric slings were made by their neighbour, a craft denim maker Blackhorse Lane Atelier in Walthamstow, London.
Special denim edition shown here celebrates the manufacturing collaboration between VG& P and BLA. For this version, both the sling and cushion were made with BLA’s stock denim, including the stripes fabric with indigo dyed blue, expected to age beautifully, fading to light blues.
VGP x BLA Genie with the BLA founder Han, at their Walthamstow factory
These stripes are reverse side of fabric used for BLA's SE8 trousers
Hickory Stripe used for the BLA's E11 Raglan Chore Jacket and N1 trousers
From sketchbook
Development of Genie
The development of this chair had seen our two studio moves; from Waterloo studio to Peckham, and to our current studio in Charlton. At an early stage, we constructed an adjustable plywood frame to access the angles of sling backrest and the seat. In the process, the finding the material suited for the sling and its construction had seen some challenges. We’d like to express our biggest thanks to a designer/upholsterer Liz Davies of Topstitch, who had expertly developed the sling pattern to follow the multiple curves of metal frames, as well as producing padded cushions keenly engineering the slouchy look for the chair. Blackhorse Lane Atelier then agreed to produce slings. And we have finally launched the chair during the Clerkenwell Design Week in May 2025.
Plywood frame constructed to determine the seat and back angles
Cushion engineered and sampled by Liz Davies of Topstitch
Trying on the first prototypes sling and cushion made by Liz
Liz's sling pattern were taken to BLA for the manufacturing
Liz from Topstitch and Han from BLA
Pattern is then reworked based on the fabric used
First manufacturing sample for testing on frame
