Paul Smith  

They are Upholstery Fabrics
I guess it's just down to personal taste as to whether one likes them, or not....
http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/collections/furniture-and-things/furnishing-f...

I think its about respect, fr...
I think its about respect, from what I've read Kjaerholm and later his wife were very specific about the colour and quality of the leather that the chairs were to be produced in. Smith as a fellow designer should tip his hat to that, not meddle with other peoples work. When Stelton or FH 'collaborate' with designers on jazzing up these pieces they in no way improve the design or communicate any confidence in producing things consistently and without fuss, maybe I'm an old crusty but thats what I like about modernism.
These companies would better serve good design by investing in new work rather than making a cheap splash.

I couldn't agree more Heath, the defacing of the Stelton range was an abomination.

Stick to ties,Paully
In rather small doses,his ties are beautiful bursts of color/design.On a large surface such as these chairs?-ugh! Perhaps best as designer bed sheets?

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the f##ker has no boundaries. How a little prick like Smith can claim to be collaborating with a dead genius (I dont mean Jacobsen - see below) is beyond me. Senile C#nt.
http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/shop/Paul-smith-and-henry-moore-collaboration...

You said it, Paulanna--
I'm not sure which offends me more-- the bad character displayed in riding the coattails of his betters, or just the hideous inferiority of his reinterpretations.
A "collaboration" with Henry Moore? Collaboration with some copyright lawyers, maybe.
I suppose we should applaud his restraint in choosing the black & white color palette, though-- those scarves might have instead been in neon, or might have included the sage advice to "take pleasure seriously" or to "start something new".
What a lazy, uninspired world we live in, when heralded "top" designers only make knock-offs. The end is nigh-ish.

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or make haste slowly...I think he just whangs away with a paper bag over his head, sorry Stephen couldn't resist.
FH have all the tooling and materials, knowledge and cache to produce and market any number of designs in real collaboration with name designers, why not a bench as a polite nod to PK with a steel frame and simple u shaped legs with Smiths fabric? It must have been too much trouble to take that very small risk when parasitising the talent that made their company what it is was so much easier, lazy indeed.

making money
I was under the impression that a company was supposed to make the most money with the lowest cost.
I have the entire PK series of chairs and stools (several of each) and while I would never purchase this Paul Smith piece, but I am not against Fritz Hansen trying to make money in any way possible in the current economic situation.
I actually enjoyed the Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chair interpreted by Paul Smith that was designed for an AIDS auction several years ago. I placed a bid on both this chair and the Louis Vuitton Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chair but was not successful.
The current Paul Smith designs are like bad television and Frank Lloyd Wright Lego, if you don't enjoy the product walk away. Poul Kjaerholm's thoughts are meaningless, he is dead.