Pierre Paulin Orange Slice Chair for Artifort

It is 1960, and Pierre Paulin looks at an orange. Not the fruit itself, perhaps, but the idea of it: the way two identical halves create a perfect whole, the way a cross-section reveals geometry hiding inside organic form. From that observation, one of the most recognisable chairs of the twentieth century is born.

The Orange Slice consists of two identical shells that curve upward and inward, creating a cocoon-like embrace. Walk around it and the shape shifts with every step, the profile transforming from a gentle arc to a dramatic wedge to something almost figural. It is a chair that performs a slow visual dance, revealing new perspectives from every angle.

This vintage edition has been professionally reupholstered in its originally intended orange colour, a warm, saturated wool that gives the chair its namesake identity. The fabric follows the compound curves of the shells with precision, highlighting the sculptural quality that makes this design so enduringly photogenic.

Paulin, born in Paris in 1927, brought a distinctly French sensibility to his work at Artifort. His designs were more playful, more organic, more willing to surprise than those of his Dutch and Scandinavian contemporaries. The Orange Slice, alongside the Tongue, the Mushroom, and the Big Tulip, established a body of work that redefined the possibilities of upholstered furniture.

In any room, the Orange Slice does what it has always done: it makes people stop, look, and smile. Then it makes them sit down. And then it makes them never want to get up.