The ICON | Up Series Chair

The late 1960s was a time when designers often threw caution to the wind, pushing boundaries and going where others haven’t. This is certainly the case with Gaetano Pesce’s Up Series, Numbers Up 5 and Up 6, launched at the Milan Furniture Fair in 1969. Also referred to as ‘La Mamma’, ‘Big Mama’ and ‘Dona’, the bulbous-shaped chair, with its connected ottoman, loosely resembles a silhouette of a well-endowed woman.

As with several furniture designs produced in the mid-to-late 1960s and into the early 1970s, the idea was to create a ‘happening’, something that allowed the user to interact. In the case of the Up Series, the idea started when Pesce was showering with a sponge in hand and observing how it expanded once released from his hand.

This principle was then applied to a four-inch-thick skin of polyurethane foam compressed and vacuum-packed in a PVC wrapper. When the PVC wrapper was broken, the skin would automatically inflate and morph into a designer chair before one’s eyes. Initially produced in five colours and two bold striped patterns, the latter accentuating its form, it’s now available in more bold and punchy primary colours, including red, and is a dramatic highlight and sculptural piece in any room.

Initially produced by C&B Italia (Cassina & Busnelli and from 2000 by B&B Italia), the gravity-defying chair was put on hold in 1973 as the freon gas combined with the polyurethane was considered harmful to the ozone layer. So, while there may no longer be a ‘happening’ for those purchasing Pesce’s Up Series, it has certainly been experiencing a strong revival the second time around. The bulbous chair certainly envelops the sitter, creating a nurturing effect with its curvaceous arms and backrest.

Although now popular and of iconic status, this chair has not been without its critics. When an eight-metre-high version of the Up Series was installed in 2019 at the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, on the 50^th anniversary of the design, there were protests from women who claimed the chair, with its connected ottoman, was symbolic of the ‘ball and chain’ women had suffered throughout history. Others thought the form of the chair was objectifying women and their servitude to men.