A friend of mine emailed me this picture of himself (it was 1953). He said the chair was an Eames wire chair rocker, but that it had this full leather cover on it, rather than a bikini cover/pad. I have not seen a cover like this before. He is wondering if it was a specific model. He no longer has the chair, but believes that the seat was made from wire that was more closely spaced than with a typical Bikini chair.
bikini pad
Yes they came full cover, either single, duo, or tri-tone patterns. It's the same basic pattern they used to cover the side shells up until the 90s.
I think there is a website that sells generic bikini pads...and there's also an eBay seller in Hong Kong who sells them fairly cheaply, altho I've never seen one in person.
DiFrutta bikini pad?
Perhaps, there has been a mis-identifaction of the designer all of these years?
The shape surly suggests the Di Frutta style, not to mention the swinging hammcock (see footnote)
(to qoute woofwoof - The Hammcock! An extremely rare variant of the hammock designed by Di Frutta. Frutta was no doubt inspired by the dedicated and friendly Hammcocks...)
Cheap Bikini Pads for Woodywood
$119-$149 from http://www.eamesbikini.com/ . Leather in lots of colors, plus various well-known textiles (Panton, Girard, Eames, etc).
Haven't actually seen one in person, so no idea how good their quality might be.
http://www.eamesbikini.com/
eamesbikini pads
eamesbikini does make the one-piece pad as well as the 'bikini' style. The one-piece is special order since we sell so few of them. We can reproduce the original 1952 ?postman bag? brown leather look or the harlequin patterns from that same period. Most of our customers opt for the contemporary look of the Maharam Textiles of the 20th Century by such designers as Eames, Nelson, Girard, etc. Pads range from $119 to $169 depending on textile choice. We also do quantity discounts.
(edited by DA - no advertising please!)
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