Famous design armchairs: 12 icons with designer, year and maker

From the 1925 Wassily to the 1991 Big Easy: the armchairs that changed the way we sit, with designer, year and manufacturer checked against the companies’ own websites.

Famous design armchairs are the pieces that introduced a material, a technique or an idea of comfort that then became a reference for everyone: the best known include Marcel Breuer’s Wassily (1925), the LC2 by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand (1928), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona (1929), the Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames (1956) and Arne Jacobsen’s Egg (1958). Almost all of them are still made by the companies that hold the rights, and that is what separates an icon from a merely vintage armchair.

The armchair remains one of the pieces designers of every generation have reinterpreted most: each decade went looking for new shapes and materials, and some of those experiments became timeless seats. Below are the most important ones in chronological order, with details checked on the manufacturers’ sites and a few pointers for choosing the right one for your home.

What are the most famous design armchairs?

The most famous design armchairs are a dozen models that appear in every history of twentieth-century furniture. The table sums them up with designer, design year and the company that makes them today.

Armchair	Designer	Year	Manufacturer
Wassily	Marcel Breuer	1925	Knoll
LC2 Fauteuil Grand Confort, petit modèle	Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand	1928	Cassina
Barcelona	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	1929	Knoll
Vanity Fair	Renzo Frau	1930	Poltrona Frau
Sant’Elia	Giuseppe Terragni	1936	Zanotta
Maggiolina	Marco Zanuso	1947	Zanotta
Womb Chair	Eero Saarinen	1948	Knoll
Lounge Chair and Ottoman	Charles and Ray Eames	1956	Herman Miller
Egg	Arne Jacobsen	1958	Fritz Hansen
Peacock Chair	Verner Panton	1959	Cassina (Karakter x Cassina reissue, 2026)
Sacco	Gatti, Paolini, Teodoro	1968	Zanotta
The Big Easy	Ron Arad	1991	Moroso

For the Womb Chair, Knoll gives 1948 as the debut year, when it was called Model 70. For the LC2 the date is the design year: the current version with recycled polyester fibre padding was introduced by Cassina in 2020.

What makes an armchair iconic?

An armchair becomes iconic when it solves a problem in a way nobody had tried before, and that solution still works decades later. Three reasons come up again and again.

• A new material. Knoll points out that the Wassily was the first chair of its kind in 1925, with a tubular steel frame. Sixty-six years later Ron Arad made the Big Easy for Moroso in mass-coloured, rotomoulded polyethylene, 100% recyclable and suitable for outdoor use.
• A specific place. Mies van der Rohe designed the Barcelona, as the Knoll product page recalls, for the German Pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. Arne Jacobsen, according to the page Fritz Hansen devotes to the designer, created the Egg for the lobby and reception of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen.
• A discerning client. The Womb Chair came from a request by Florence Knoll to Eero Saarinen, and Knoll still makes it to the original specifications.

Which iconic armchairs did the twentieth century produce?

The twentieth century produced iconic armchairs at every stage: tubular steel rationalism, Italian design between the wars, American and Scandinavian modernism, sixties pop and the experiments of the nineties.

Tubular steel: Wassily, LC2, Barcelona

The Wassily takes its name from Wassily Kandinsky, Breuer’s colleague, who was taken with one of the early prototypes. Cassina’s LC2 puts comfort first: a cage of tubular steel, polished chrome or painted, holding cushions upholstered in fabric or leather. The Barcelona is the icon of formal settings, and Knoll produces it under rights granted by Mies himself.

Italy in the thirties and forties: Vanity Fair, Sant’Elia, Maggiolina

The Vanity Fair, designed by Renzo Frau in 1930, is Poltrona Frau’s signature armchair. In 2026 the company presented the Vanity Fair XC In Motion, a limited edition Poltrona Frau describes as a contemporary evolution of the original. Giuseppe Terragni’s Sant’Elia, from 1936, combines an 18/8 stainless steel frame with leather upholstery. Marco Zanuso’s Maggiolina, from 1947, grew out of an experiment with a new production method, as Zanotta explains.

Post-war America and Denmark: Womb, Lounge Chair, Egg, Peacock

Herman Miller has made the Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames continuously since 1956, the year it was introduced. The 1958 Egg is still one of the most recognisable Jacobsen seats in the Fritz Hansen collection. Verner Panton’s Peacock Chair, one of his first projects, dates from 1959 and went back into production in 2026 in the Karakter x Cassina collection: an electro-welded stainless steel structure, a truncated cone base and a large hemispherical shell with seven cushions, which becomes a rocking chair when lifted off the base.

From pop to the 2000s: Sacco, Big Easy, Victoria and Albert, Ghost

The Sacco by Gatti, Paolini and Teodoro (1968) does away with any rigid frame and moulds itself to whoever sits in it. In 1991 Ron Arad designed the Big Easy and the Soft Heart for Moroso, both still in the company’s collection; in 2000 came the Victoria and Albert, with an internal steel frame, cold-cured foam padding and painted steel feet. In a different register, Fiam’s Ghost, designed by Cini Boeri with Tomu Katayanagi in a single sheet of curved glass, was one of the stars of Expo Osaka 2025.

How can you tell an original from a reinterpretation?

You recognise an original by its manufacturer: the name of the company that holds the rights, the mark on the product and the paperwork from an authorised retailer. Knoll, for example, states that Breuer and Mies granted it the production rights for the Wassily and the Barcelona. There are also plenty of contemporary armchairs that take loose inspiration from the icons without copying them, and that is where to look on a tighter budget: a useful reference is the Arredare Moderno catalogue, handy for comparing shapes, upholstery and finishes from Italian brands before visiting a showroom.

How do you choose an iconic armchair for your home?

Start with how you will use it, then the space, and only at the end the name. A reading chair like the Lounge Chair needs its own corner with light from the side; a conversation chair like the Barcelona works best in pairs, facing a sofa.

• Measure the real space. Post-war icons are often wide and deep: if your living room is compact, start with our guide to small armchairs and the measurements to check.
• Think about the material. Leather and fabric need different care; the Big Easy’s polyethylene stands up to light and water and can go on a terrace, while the lacquered version is not recommended outdoors.
• Look for character, not just a name. If unusual shapes appeal to you, our ranking of unique armchairs brings together sculptural pieces with the strengths and limits of each.
• Consider contemporary Italian design too. Companies such as Cattelan Italia work with established designers on more recent lines: see our profile of Cattelan Italia’s history and iconic pieces.

Frequently asked questions

Who designed the Egg chair, and for what building?

The Egg is by Arne Jacobsen, who designed it in 1958 for the lobby and reception of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. It is made by Fritz Hansen.

Is the Barcelona chair by Mies van der Rohe?

Yes. Knoll attributes it to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who created it for the German Pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona.

Which iconic armchair works best outdoors?

Of those listed here, Moroso’s Big Easy in the polyethylene version: the manufacturer describes it as resistant to light and water.

Sources

• Knoll, product pages Barcelona Chair, Wassily Chair, Womb Chair
• Cassina, product page LC2 Fauteuil Grand Confort, petit modèle, durable and Peacock Chair product page (Karakter x Cassina)
• Fritz Hansen, Arne Jacobsen designer page
• Herman Miller, Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman product page
• Zanotta, Sacco, Maggiolina and Sant’Elia product pages
• Poltrona Frau, news on the Vanity Fair XC In Motion (2026)
• Moroso, armchair collection and The Big Easy and Victoria and Albert product pages
• Fiam Italia, the Ghost armchair at Expo Osaka 2025