16 June,2011 06:50 AM IST | | Anjana Vaswani
With products featured in popular sitcoms like House, Frasier and Castle, herman miller is a brand whose designs may well be eligible for their own spots on the Avenue of the Stars. The Internationally acclaimed design firm has opened its doors at Raghuvanshi Mills
Fourteen years after he started working at the Michigan Star Furniture Company as a clerk, Dirk Jan De Pree, the son of a Michigan tinsmith, took a loan from his wife Nellie's father, and bought the firm. He renamed it Henry Miller in honour of his father-in-law and five decades later the company was ranked among America's top 10 best-managed companies.
The 3,500 sq ft store showcases designs by Marc Fong, Yves B ufffdhar, Don
Chadwick and Bill Stumpf. Pics/ Prathik Panchamia
Umesh Munot, who started working with the brand as a trainee over 19 years ago in the company's Michigan branch, is now the brand's Mumbai dealer-partner. Armed with all those years of experience, Munot leads us around the 3,500 sq ft showroom, enthusiastically pointing out wonderful details in furniture pieces like the seven gorgeous layers on the edge of the low Eames Elliptical Coffee-Table (Rs 50,000) with its seven ply Baltic birch core that sits in the middle of the showroom and the fine bamboo detail on the Arras Workstation (Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000) created especially for the Asia-Pacific region by Marc Fong.
Drawing our attention to the famous Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, which have been featured on sitcoms such as Friends and Castle and have a spot in NY's Museum of Modern Art, Munot shares, "The design employs Charles and Ray Eames' special wood moulding technique ufffd one that they devised for the US Navy when they were approached to make light-weight leg-splints for injured servicemen." Equally celebrated is the award-winning Aeron Chair (Rs 35,000 to Rs 85,000, depending on specifications) designed by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf, a bulky design that adapts naturally to the sitter's body and was featured in a James Bond movie. "The higher, bar-stool version of this design would cost about Rs 1,00,000," Munot says, telling us that each design prototype must meet very high standards. "Seats of chairs are pounded from a two-feet height with 500 pound sand-bags and the chair must survive over a hundred thousand cycles of this before the design is approved," he says.
Inspired by the engineering of California's iconic Golden Gate Bridge, Swiss designer, Yves B ufffdhar's Sayl Chair (Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000, depending on specifications) is another simple, yet stunning design, especially its naked skeletal version which shows off the chair's cellular, frameless back. "The design encourages a full range of movements, and minimises the use of materials thereby making the chair lighter and also reducing the burden on the environment," Munot adds. George Nelson's deliciously dubbed, Coconut Chair and Marshmallow Sofa, weren't on display here, but we did get to see incredibly detailed miniature models of these 1956 designs. Any Herman Miller design out of their catalogue may be ordered here, but if they're not available at the showroom, delivery may takeu00a0 upto 12 weeks.
At Prathamesh Tower, Raghuvanshi Mill Compound, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel.
Call 24970208
