“Isn’t it amazing,” I said to the man who seemed to have taken root in the stuffed chair, his wife close by smiling at his relaxed figure.
“And it’s comfortable, too,” he replied, which was obvious from his seeming attachment to it. “Try it.”
He pried himself from the chair, which was upholstered in Levi’s jeans – pockets and leather tags included – and I took his place. I had seen the chair a few minutes earlier as I was making my way through the furniture at the auction house. I hadn’t tried it out, though, because I wasn’t interested in buying it, but I did admire its workmanship.
I sank into the soft cushion, and it was indeed comfortable, which was surprising since these were actual Levi’s blue jeans. The fabric had been pressed so flat that even the seams and pockets were smooth. Levi’s brand tags were also sew into the seams in various spots.
The couple began moving on to other furniture as I sat there pressing my bottom and my back into the stuffed comfort of the chair.
“It’d be fun to have,” the wife said, soon gleefully noticing another item that captured her attention.
The Levi’s jeans chair was the most unusual item I saw at the auction house on that preview day. I love walking among the furniture here because this place has some of the loveliest vintage and antique furniture of all the auction houses I frequent. On this day, though, the vast room that normally held so much was pretty thin, just as thin as the auction house I had just left. Usually at that one, I can barely ease through the aisles between rows and rows of furniture. Today, the aisles were wide.
Even the couple from the Levi’s chair noticed it – “It’s a light week for all the auction houses,” I heard the man mention to his wife as they were leaving. “There’s not much here.”
Except for the Levi Strauss & Co. jeans chair, that is. If you were looking for a novelty item or conversation piece for your home, it would be a good choice.
I had not seen a jeans chair at auction before – though I’ve seen some pretty strange chairs – so I was naturally curious about whether there were others. Denim fabric seems to be just as popular in furniture as it is in clothing, because I found plenty of denim chairs for sale on the web. Some of them used Levi’s jeans as upholstery and promoted themselves as such.
One of the first pieces I found was a sectional jeans sofa advertised as fitting like Levi’s jeans, and made in 1972 by Gijs Bakker of Droog Design in Amsterdam. Another was a mid-20th century modern sewing chair with a woven Levi’s jeans seat and tag, and under-seat storage.
There was an armchair made with very washed-out and faded Levi’s jeans selling for $3,700 (and were sold out); a boxy sofa; armchair, office chair, bookbag, jewelry and more, made by a Dutch company that creates all things denim, and a tufted arm chair described as a cigar club denim chair.
I also came across the chair from the auction house. It was scheduled for an upcoming sale.
