February 1, 2022

"At one point, I had to clarify for a guy that I didn’t actually own the chair, that it was my friend’s, and he unmatched me. I was like, 'Okay, wow.'"

Wrote Emily Kirkpatrick, 33, in "It’s been 66 years, and young men are still obsessed with the Eames lounger" (WaPo). 

When Kirkpatrick, a freelance writer who lives in Brooklyn, later tweeted about her Tinder matches’ obsession with the chair, women confirmed her assessment. “The hold this chair has on men,” one user wrote. “The only chair they know,” quipped another....

42 comments:

rehajm said...

“The hold this chair has on men,”

“men”…

rehajm said...

So modern has appeal but you have to tread carefully about the cilché: barcelona, eames, tulip…especially tulip. Those elle decor layouts where they put the lamp on the tulip table- where do they plug it in?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

My my father was a cabinet maker. One of his clients had an Eames chair that he was getting rid of, so he sold it to my father for $25. My father used it daily for 15 years, then it got some use in a back room for another 20.

After my father passed away, my mother had an auction company come in to sell off his wood shop equipment,and a few other items. Well used but high quality professional equipment. The item that fetched the most was the Eames chair, for $600.

tim in vermont said...

Was she dating Kramer?

rehajm said...

besides, the le corbusier is more comfy…

mikee said...

The Eames is the elite version of the humble, but oh so comfortable, recliner.
Laugh if you want, it is just wonderful to recline.
Recliners - Lane Furniture
https://lanefurniture.com/c/recliners

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

It is a great chair. "It’s synonymous with success."

What is Emily synonymous with?

RideSpaceMountain said...

Wow, the WestEndCaleb meme is real. Women really are being dumped by a hipster douchebag furniture designer.

Eff this gay clownworld.

tim in vermont said...

"Men" can get their own chairs. If this story is true, she was dating a boy.

RideSpaceMountain said...

*WestElmCaleb

Eff this gay autocorrect.

M said...

My mom’s second husband had this in leather and rosewood. He was an architect in Chicago until his first wife was stabbed during a mugging. Then he moved to Ft. Lauderdale and became a bartender in a tiny bar for very wealthy men. We would go to Guatemala and he would bring back Ron Zacapa rum for the bar because it was so cheap down there. I honestly didn’t even know most rum was clear until I was in my thirties. Clear rum is nasty. Dark rum made form sugar cane is like scotch. You can drink it straight.

Anyway I didn’t know this chair was any big deal as a kid. It was all worn and beat up since he bought it years before when he was working as an architect. I used to sit in it all the time. Was wrestling with the dog and broke it. Big. Deal. Had to be sent away to be fixed. The dog and I were both in the dog house for a long time over that one. Ha. Hadn’t thought about any of this in years.

tim in vermont said...

A man nicknamed the 'West Elm Caleb' has earned a reputation as a serial ghoster on Hinge
Several women say they matched with him and enjoyed either 'intense' messages or dating before he disappeared
They discovered that it was a pattern when a woman named posted on TikTok about a man named Caleb who ghosted her
Several women commented and replied asking if it was the 'West End Caleb,' a 25-year-old furniture designer for the home store West Elm
Now several other women have shared stories of his alleged bad behavior and are warning other women to stay away


LOL.

wild chicken said...

I'd never heard of Eames chairs until I read the Philip Roth bio. He had terrible back problems all his life so it must have helped.

I think Blake Bailey ended up with it. Lol.

Kai Akker said...

Men are really weird, aren't we? Like we only know one kind of chair. Whereas women know everything!

Biotrekker said...

It is the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in and we have one.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I thought I saw those in Kubrick 2001. I was wrong 😑.

https://images.app.goo.gl/2xLvZkQ6dnQKFnJcA

Ted said...

To me, this general style of chair (a cushioned recliner with a separate ottoman) is by far the most comfortable, and I've owned several at various different times. Regular recliners are generally too short, too plush, and have poor lower-back support. These are not only stylish, but they support a tall person and are easy to get in and out of -- they can even make a nice workstation with a laptop computer.

Unfortunately, I can't afford the fancy Nordic recliners, and the cheap ones often don't last that long. (Most of your body is supported by a relatively flimsy wood or metal pole or arch -- similar to an office chair, except in that case you're putting less weight on it because your feet are on the floor.) If I owned an actual, valuable Eames chair, I might be afraid to use it too often.

Menahem Globus said...

Looks like they put some wheels on a Womb Chair and changed the name to avoid licensing fees. I wonder if Saarinen sued.

Bender said...

The pointless things that the #CheckYourPrivilege set care about.

Bill Peschel said...

Dam, RideSpaceMountain, I googled WestEndCaleb and fell into a "Sex and the City" episode (the good series, not the crappy reboot).

Leora said...

My father had one that he loved.

Tom said...

I love the Eames lounger and our new home is just about finished being built and and soon after that, my lounger will arrive.

It’s a great story as well. Eames used the technique of molding plywood in WWII to make fields casts for injured troops.

After the war, he got the idea to make furniture with the technique.

Temujin said...

1) It actually IS the only chair they know.
2) They want to try to show the woman involved that they get design. That they have taste.
3) Unfortunately, living in Brooklyn shows that they have no taste at all.

And if he/they really wanted to show off about Eames he would point out that he has an authorized Eames/Herman Miller Elliptical (Surfboard) table in his/their living room. Everyone knows the Eames Lounger. Unfortunately if he lives in Brooklyn he doesn't have room for the Eames Elliptical Table in his living room or any other room.

Rory said...

I think Frasier has one, up near the balcony.

Blair said...

I honestly didn’t even know most rum was clear until I was in my thirties. Clear rum is nasty.

El Dorado 3 year is fantastic. It has beautiful vanilla notes. I wouldn't make a mojito with anything else. You should try it. It's even fairly sippable neat, although I don't tend to drink it that way.

Rollo said...

How many chairs do people "know," let alone love? Not many, I think. But if you know the Eames chair, you know the Barcelona chair. You probably know the rustic Adirondack chair. And it's more likely that you know the molded plastic Eames chair, familiar from scores of imitations, than the more prestigious Eames lounge chair. For most people, though, a chair is just a chair, and a $5,000 chair is a joke or an obscenity.

Rollo said...

How many chairs do people "know," let alone love? Not many, I think. But if you know the Eames chair, you know the Barcelona chair. You probably know the rustic Adirondack chair. And it's more likely that you know the molded plastic Eames chair, familiar from scores of imitations, than the more prestigious Eames lounge chair. For most people, though, a chair is just a chair, and a $5,000 chair is a joke or an obscenity.

Narr said...

Love me, love my chair.

I do just fine with an old recliner, one of a pair from ma-in-law's house, and am not a fan of multi-piece furniture. Eames is better than Wassily though, which was designed by the Gestapo with a grant from Fauci.

Freeman Hunt said...

One of my dad's friends had one. I used to sit in it when I was a kid because it looked neat. Never for too long though because I've always found recliners uncomfortable.

Two-eyed Jack said...

OTOH Wassily chairs suck.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Westelmcaleb reminds me of my younger years, lambos and bimbos, the combo God intended.

My favorite thing about it is how all this works to his advantage and mad-hoes don't even know. They think they're building a coalition against him when in fact nothing, NOTHING, makes women more interested in a guy than female pre-validation. Women are not and have never been a 'coalition'...some chick somewhere is thinking I gotta see what Caleb is all about. If I had another son, he'd look like Caleb.

Tina Trent said...

The chair is lovely.


What about the rest of life?

Big Mike said...

Why are women mystified? The Eames is an uncommonly comfortable chair.

tim maguire said...

rehajm said...
“The hold this chair has on men,”

“men”…


Indeed, I question the manhood of anyone who even knows what an Eames chair is other than through their wife or their work. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before, but maybe I have given that there is about a 90% chance that if you mention the Eames chair to me tomorrow, I’ll swear I’d never heard of it before.

walter said...


Hyperlink Code

Big O's Meanings Dictionary said...

custom chair imprint - definition

slang: butt-crack imprint, butt-print

The impression made on a padded chair after long use. This use is typically formed by the individual owning the chair and can engender an attachment akin to a beloved pet. This mostly occurs in men.

This attachment is like unto a territorial imperative in many animals which may, in this case as in that, lead to conflict. Again, mostly occurring in men.

This also leads to a ranking of padded chairs into personal print, no print or 'virgin', unprintable - otherwise known to most men as 'too fucking hard', and not applicable.


The personal print is the most common with 'virgin' being a member with scant accumulated use.

example: most padded comfort chairs, home or office


unprintable - chairs where the 'padding' is a mere half inch of foam compressed by a canvas-like heavy fabric

example: pretty much any model office chair under $200


Not applicable - a chair requiring no break in period whatsoever to engender the above mentioned state of fierce attachment.

example: the Eames lounger

Jamie said...

My favorite chair is my grandfather's wooden, craftsman-styled, long-runner upholstered rocker. It might be a one-off. I've been curling up in it with a book since I was about 4, and my uncle brought it out to me from WI after my grandfather died. It needs reupholstering, but it is unbelievably comfortable and smooth-rocking.

I do like a motion chair. And while I do not adopt an antique aesthetic generally, screw this modern thing.

Rory said...

"Wassily"

Frasier had a Wassily, too. The one replaced by Martin's chair.

farmgirl said...


“I'd never heard of Eames chairs until I read the Philip Roth bio.”

I’d never heard of Eames chairs until I read this post!

farmgirl said...

Well, Walter- she looks like she could be fun… she’s up for it, anyway!

PM said...

You mean the men who buy and furnish mid-Century homes in Palm Springs? Those men?

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

"They think they're building a coalition against him when in fact nothing, NOTHING, makes women more interested in a guy than female pre-validation. "

When I was in the Army, a young woman started school at the University where I had studied. when word came that I was coming back to school, not a few fellow students muttered dark threats and spent hours in the local coffee shop plotting how best to kill me, maim me, etc. for various things I had allegedly done to and with a few of their female acquaintances.

The young woman thought to herself, "I gotta meet this guy." She and I met and are now 28 years into our marriage.

Now I understand that I was pre-validated. I like the sound of that. If it was the modern world I'd probably have a QR code tattooed on me somewhere to provide easy reference to my pre-validation.