Gijs Papavoine designed this classic swivel easy chair to evoke “a cut open fruit.” Key designer for Dutch company Montis (along with owner Paul van den Berg), Papavoine is known for “applying shapes” to the furniture line that “has been of a big significance for the exclusive market position” of Montis. The Olivier Chair represents the mysterious, signature production method of Montis, wherein a chair is “given its jacket.” This unknown approach has allowed the company to “set itself apart from other companies within the sector.”

Olivier Chair. Designed by Gijs Papavoine for Montis.

Most would agree that Olivier’s jacket is like a snug rind, enveloping the soft, comfortable stuffing that makes the chair ideal for relaxation. In concert with its accompanying ottoman, Olivier invites the leisurely afternoon. The chair measures 37.5″ w x 33.5″ d x 37.5″ h and the ottoman 31.5″ w x 13.4″ d x 13.8″ h, making the combination perfect for “curling up,” though the Olivier Chair certainly welcomes more traditional sitting postures. Papavoine conceived of Olivier as an antidote to the usual fare of swivel chairs. Working against the typical constraint “that this type of chair imposes,” Papavoine envisioned a version of the traditional piece—hence the fruit. With the graceful curve of a sliced melon or a split peach, the chair’s form “envelops the human frame.” The roundness of the back and seat echo the circle of Olivier’s base, a circle tapering into a brief stem (the resulting base reminds me of a piped merengue, furthering the delicious culinary metaphor of its shape).

Olivier might very well go in psychiatry practices the world over, where it would replace the ubiquitous mid-century black leather chair favored by head doctors. I’m thinking that Olivier would soften the entire profession, transforming it into something less Freudian and more welcoming. Short of this utopian vision, I’d like to encounter the Olivier Chair and Ottoman in my next hotel room—in lieu of the overstuffed wing chair that no traveler should suffer. Available in a wide range of fabrics, from leather to wool, Olivier can be as tangy as a tangerine (in coral cotton), as quirky as a quince (in mango green Maharam), as fine as a fig (in carmine Kvadrat).