Swiss company De Sede is known for quality leather furniture; they’ve been catering to an international market since 1965. Their skilled craftsmanship has led to a veritable empire “with over 1000 trading partners in more than 100 countries around the globe.” This multinational favor is very much a result of De Sede’s mission “to create hand-crafted masterpieces to meet discriminating individual requirements for the world of today.” Part of that goal is longevity: De Sede designs pieces that will last for generations, both in terms of construction and style.

DS-258. Manufactured by De Sede

Their omnipresence stems from their classic treatment of leather, pairing tufted upholstery with simple steel. But De Sede has not stopped evolving. At the 2009 Salone Internationale del Mobile in Milan, De Sede introduced a roomful of new products, including the DS-258. The DS-258 is appealing for lots of reasons, although two stand out: 1) the chair is cantilevered and 2) the chair has a generous seating height. Both of these features ensure that the DS-258 model “provides a perfect setting for prolonged lounging.” If you’ve read any of my recent posts, you cannot have missed my preference for furniture that encourages relaxation—for example, Prive. While DS-258 looks serious enough—and elegant—the lounge chair does offer comfort surreptitiously. In other words, it’s a lounge chair that doesn’t look like it’s defined by lounge-ness; this quality makes it ideal for “private settings and public areas.”

The base of the DS-258 comes in chrome-plated flat steel with a high-gloss or pearlescent finish. The leather choices are bountiful. De Sede offers a cornucopia of standard colors in various textures. If you’re not satisfied with their standard sand or sienna, you can choose from the company’s DS-Coloral offerings—more than 2,000 shades of subtle and varied hues that “meet just about every colour requirement.” The DS-258 is gorgeous in black, recalling the original De Sede line of the 1960s, but it is playful in pistachio, coy in coral, and scandalous in scarlet. DS-258 offers the best of both worlds, borrowing from the classic De Sede line as it modernizes the collection with its high back—reflecting “a sense of tradition while at the same time expressing a sophisticated feel for luxury.”