Emanuelle Chair
The Peacock chair became the Emanuelle Chair In the 1970s. This throne-like chair with a massive back made of rattan, became a tool for being sexy after the release of the film and the poster-image for the rated X movie Emanuelle; in which the lead-actress Sylvia Kristel posed topless in such a chair. (She did that, or had to, for many years to come.) It became an iconic image associated with sensuality and/or plain sex. Anyone who posed in a Peacock chair became sensual in an instant. And so, it those days you will find images from Julio Iglesias to Brigitte Bardot in a Peacock chair. Amazing!
Exotic Morticia Addams Chair
For people who were old enough to watch TV in the 1960s: you know the chair probably as being linked to the The Addams Family tv series. Mom Morticia Addams sat in one all the time. If you were born in the early 1900’s the peacock chair would have an exotic connotation to it as well, For the first time western culture came in touch with Asian design and materials.There lies the origins of the peacock chair: to be specific in the Philippines.
Twenty First Century designer adaptations of the Peacock chair
The Cala armchair, designed by Doshi Levien for Kettal is the latest adaptation of the peacock-chair we’ve seen. Other modern examples are the Crinoline armchair by Patricia Urquiola for B&B Italia, he Peacock-L by UUfie and the Rotan chair by Sjoerd Vroonland.
(oher images via finerees / worthpoint.com / gettyimages.nl)