Eames for Vitra vs Eames for Herman Miller question  

They wear in
I agree with you that the all-silver look is a little too precious for my taste. And the chair is already precious enough to begin with!
The firm seats, however, wear in. Mine was very firm when I got it (previous owner almost never sat in it). However, in the past 6-8 months I've had it the seat has noticeably softened, and the leather has started to crease every so nicely 🙂 Altho, nothing like the late 50s model I saw a few weeks ago. *sigh*
You can be pretty sure that all of the Edelman offerings are going to be full aniline and probably not much corrected grain (so very natural). The Herman Miller stuff is full grain, semi aniline, and corrected grain/surface coating to prevent against staining and fading. (according to their website).
Leather grading is fairly complex and hard to pinpoint exactly if one is better than another. Something like the Edelman may feel wonderful - but might not be durable enough to last in the average home.

lots of differences between t...
lots of differences between the HM and vitra chairs.
i've owned a Vitra Lounge Chair, but dind't like it and sold it. About a year ago i bought a new HM lounge chair and i like it much better.
The leather from vitra is thicker, but after a couple of years the leather is getting loose around around the cushion. Also it started to crack, although i know how the handle leather.. The HM Leather looks a lot better in my opinion.
Also the rubber shockmounts on the new herman miller chairs are glued as well as they have about 4 or 5 screws. The vitra version is only glued.
the vitra plywood has more layers. HM has 5 layers plus the veneer, Vitra has 8 layers plus the veneer!
The herman miller chairs have veneer inside! Most of the vitra chairs have a black coating/paint inside.
HM has walnut, Vitra doesn't.
I've owned a vintage HM chair, a Vitra Chair and i now own a new HM chair (pallisander). i like the HM chair best, by far!

Interesting chat I had with a 2nd hand dealer
Hi
Great thread with some very interesting points.
I had a great chat with an amazing second hand dealer recently about the pros and cons of HM versus Vitra.
He told me that over the long history of the chair there have been SEVERAL authorised manufacturers of it - someone earlier in this thread mentioned Mobilier International as an example. He said that often these chairs will be significantly cheaper than HM or Vitra on the 2nd hand market, as people assume them to be fakes, but THEY WERE authorised to make them when they did. He said that the many companies who were making authorised versions had the plug pulled on them however when Vitra went into am exclusive deal with HM to be the sole non-US dealer. Now as you can imagine, that kind of exclusivity costs a lot, and some of that is MUST be reflected in the cost of Vitra products, however, Vitra products are absolutely beautifully made products of the highest quality.
So I came to the conclusion that as this chair has been produced in so many variations by several companies that there is no holy grail - except of course your own holy grail!
Personally, I prefer the HM base, but probably the shell and leather of the Vitra chair (and yes, a very similar base to the Vitra does feature on other Eames furniture manufactured by HM - part of the aluminium group I think).
Regarding the furniture bought by the hotel, I'm not in the business, can appreciate that times are tough, and therefore would like to be sympathetic, however to say that reproductions are exactly the same as authorised versions is simply not true. There is a shop in London who have a repro to view beside a Vitra (& their motivation is to sell repros). This shopper came up to me and said "amazing isn't it - exactly the same and for a fraction of the price!" I didn't bother discussing with her the botched plywood all around the shell, distortions in the veneer, imperfections in the cast of the base, the quality of the leather etc, but in life you generally get what you pay for. Who here would consider buying a reproduction sports car if they were available? I guess most people wouldn't, as you assume on lose many of the things you pay for to own the original e.g. the fast engine.
Finally, to the fibreglass whiners, I sit typing this from my plastic shell chair, and it's not difficult for me to believe that if Charles and Ray were alive today, they would be more than happy for the chairs to be produced as they currently are...

No need
To respond to this thread, Jeremiah is now a famous TV star.

woodywood perhaps you can ...
woodywood perhaps you can share who Jeremiah the famous tv star is .
His thread is from 2008 it is almost 2012. only took him 4 years to become famous.