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Reupholstering Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chairs  

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Joined: 2026 years ago
Posts: 2
29/09/2016 12:01 pm  

I am desperately looking for a close to original reupholstering of the seat cussions of Saarinen’s Tulip Chairs. The original fabric of the sixties is a velvet of an unbelievable quality which doesn’t form any seat mirrors. I guess it is a Knoll Velvet consisting of 46% mohair and 54% cotton. Unfortunately, Knoll doesn’t any more produce this fabric with the bright orange colour.
After 8 weeks intense research, I found 3 alternative fabrics which come close to the original fabric in one way or another:
1 Designers Guild Varese Zinnia comes close to the original colour but is lighter than the original, has a tendency to forming seat mirrors and is less abrasion-resistant as it is pure cotton,
2 James Dunlop Indent Velluti 107 (I am waiting for a sample),
3 Kvadrat Tonus 4 Colour 125 comes closest to the original weight due to 90% of wool but is not a velvet.

I would be very grateful for any suggestion of an alternative fabric which meets the following requirements:
a) bright i.e. luminous but not shiny orange colour
b) velvet of high quality material (as far as possible natural fibres with low tendency for forming seat mirrors).
Any advice is welcome!


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Spanky
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Joined: 6 years ago
Posts: 4376
29/09/2016 4:07 pm  

For what it's worth, these chairs were done in various fabrics originally so if you just want to do an authentic fabric, you wouldn't have to stick to a velvet.
That said, mohair velvet is probably what you're looking for. It doesn't crush with use and has a beautiful luster. Quite a few mills make it and one of them somewhere probably makes it in orange.
I would avoid cotton velvet (not the same look at all) and polyester and nylon velvets looks and feels cheap compared to mohair velvet. Rayon velvet has a beautiful sheen but the nap will flatten right away and you'll have all 'mirrors' as you said (we in the US just say it gets shiny but I really like your term!).
There's also wool velvet (less sheen) and I think wool and cotton blend velvet (where the pile is actually a blend--the base fabric on most of these will be cotton or some other fiber than the pile fabric). Mohair velvet has the most luster.
If you are ok with an authtentic fabric that isn't a velvet, then Kvadrat Tonus or Maharam are both really good choices and come in some pretty intense oranges. Tonus is a softer, fuzzier wool than Hallingdal.




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Joined: 2026 years ago
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29/09/2016 7:49 pm  

Thank you very much for your fundamental explanations, dear spanky, they will help to narrow down the choice. The only task which is still to be done is how to identify “the few mills” which still make a mohair resp. wool blend velvet with its marvellous luster…


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Spanky
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Joined: 6 years ago
Posts: 4376
29/09/2016 11:32 pm  

I found a bunch within minutes of just googling "mohair velvet", including Knoll and Maharam, but I don't know what will be available to you in Europe. I'm sure that there are mills and distributors, though. It used to be made in Germany last time I checked but that was probably 15 or more years ago.


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