Designed by Barcelona-based Lievore Altherr Molina for Italian company Arper, Catifa 60 Lounge Chair continues the Catifa Collection in a more relaxing vein. Prior Catifa chairs, including Catifa 53, employed hard plastics. While those chairs were comfortably molded to one’s body, they did not allow for lounging. With the addition of the Catifa 60 Lounge Chair, Arper can now please those inclined toward absolute repose.

Catifa 60 Lounge Chair. Designed by Lievore Altherr Molina.

Recently shown at the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair, Catifa 60 Lounge “retains the same delicate sinuous lines” while offering “the utmost in comfort.” Available in two back heights, Catifa 60 Lounge offers a matching footstool and armrests, so one can truly rest every appendage. The chair’s central structure of polished aluminum has the added benefit of a swivel or seat-repositioning mechanism. Begun in 1989 as an artisanal leather-working business, Arper retains its focus on the material. Catifa 60 Lounge Chair is available in ten fabrics, but it is meant to be appreciated in the wide array of leather options that constitute Arper’s speciality: from eight colors of faux leather to thirteen colors of soft leather to 42 colors of elmosoft leather. The soft leather “comes from supreme quality cowhide” and so is “soft and pliable.” Arper, however, clearly wants to tout the qualities of elmosoft, a semi-aniline leather that’s both comfortable and durable with “an extensive shade card.” The company adds, “Visible insect bites and scars form healed wounds add to the elegant character of the leather”–almost gruesome in its specific detail but certainly indicative of Arper’s knowledge.

Arper calls the Catifa 60 Lounge “a perfect balance of design and ergonomics.” The chair does look as good as it feels. In red, it’s the ideal chair for reading a guilty romance novel. In brown, get more serious with a war history. In white, read an account of salt. In blue, peruse an atlas of the Maldives. The shorter-backed verison lends itself to office environments, where nobody should be allowed to fall into an afternoon slumber. The longer back belongs in the home, where one can give in to Morpheus and snooze away.