Top 10 Legendary Female Designers in the Furniture Industry | Lireeco
By: Eva Inès
Tags: Furniture Designer, Female Designer, Furniture Design, Designer, Furniture

Since the last century, women have often been defined as a single role that only needs to “take good care of the home”. However, in fact, they who are in contact with home most often occupy very little position in the furniture field.

You may also like:

Top 12 Documentaries about Furniture, Design, and Architecture

The Best 15 Romantic Home Design and Decor Ideas — 2022 Valentine’s Day Special

Stylish home decor ideas for dining room 2022: Black dining chairs

In this field where women are not welcome to enter the male-dominated field, until the emergence of “they”, they refuse to be defined by gender, break the stereotypes of furniture design, and insist on realizing self-worth in their favorite fields, which can ultimately represent them. “She” is a piece of classic works that have been passed down for centuries, and has far-reaching significance and influence on the future.

Today, we introduce 10 legendary furniture designers who have made waves in the field of furniture design.

“ To create, you must first question everything. “

Eileen Gray is a pioneer of female furniture designers, who has pioneered his own space in a male-centered modernist world. Eileen Gray, born in Enniscorthy, Ireland in 1878, was one of the first women admitted to Slade. During the 1920s and 1930s, she became one of the main representatives of revolutionary furniture design and new architectural theories.

Eileen Gray’s most famous architectural work E-1027.

“The house is not the machine of life. It is the outer shell of the person, the extension of the person, and the release of the person’s spirit. Not only the visual harmony, but also the overall organization, and the combination of the whole work, make it have the most far-reaching significance. “As Eileen Gray said, “the light of human nature” can be found in her furniture and architecture.

Eileen Gray Furniture Collection

Lily Reich was born in Berlin, Germany in 1885. When she went to Vienna in 1908 to work for Wiener Werkstätte, she returned to Berlin in 1911 and started designing furniture and clothing.

In 1920, Lily was elected the first woman on the management committee of the German Union. And here, the chairman of the Deutsche Crafts Union introduced her acquaintance with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), and collided with her and Mies van der Rohe on furniture for many years of cooperation.

The steel tube chair LR 36/103, designed by Reich between 1936 and 1938, was used in the Crous apartment in Freudenstadt, Germany.

The imperial sketch of Lilly Reich’s LR120 steel pipe chair is still kept in the Museum of Modern Art.

Throughout the process of collaboration, they also designed residences, such as Casa Tugendhat and Casa Lange, and of course furniture, the most outstanding of which are the Barcelona chair and the Brno chair. Lilly Reich is undoubtedly one of the promoters of modern design in the 20th century.

“ The extension of living art is living art. “

Charlotte Perriand is a pioneer of French modernism and one of the most influential figures in the design and architecture of the 20th century. During her long career, Perriand’s aesthetic grammar has continued to evolve, transforming from tubular steel furniture in the “machine age” to lyrical naturalism.

In the early days of Perriand’s career, because of his exhibited works at the Paris Autumn Art Salon in 1927, Bar under the Roof, which has the characteristics of the “mechanical age”, attracted the attention of critics; The structure of alumina board, such an extraordinary use of materials, was very innovative at the time.

In the same year, Perriand, who was only 24 years old, joined the famous Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret team. This famous design trio started a 10-year historic collaboration in the studio at 35 Avenue Sèvres in Paris.

During this period, traces of her can be found in all the creations of the studio, so she played an important role in Le Corbusier’s reform project, bringing a touch of humanistic care to the design of Le Corbusier, which often appears rational and cold.

She can bring artistic vitality to the most ordinary everyday objects: keen insight and bold use of new materials bring endless possibilities for design.

“ The easiest way to prove what you can do is to do it yourself. “

Grossman, who was born in woodworking and home improvement, grew up in Sweden in the 1920s. During her apprenticeship in Helsingborg, she was the only woman in the workshop. Grossman realized the disadvantages of being a female artist and said that she felt she “should take a step forward”. She eventually became one of the first women to graduate from the Stockholm Institute of Industrial Design and was greatly influenced by functionalism.

In 1933, she won the Furniture Design Award from the Swedish Industrial Design Association and became the first woman to receive the award.

In 1943, Grossman in Beverly Hills encountered the first project in which she served as an interior designer and architect. This house was a major breakthrough for her as an architect and was published in John Entenza’s influential magazine “Arts & Architecture”.

Between 1949 and 1959, she designed 14 houses in Los Angeles. Grossman is known for building houses on “difficult land” and became an outstanding representative of experimental architecture in the 1960s.

“ The role of the designer is a very considerate host who can anticipate the needs of users. “

The Eames couple can be said to be a fairy group that everyone in the furniture industry knows. In that era of lack of gender equality, Charles Eames once commented on his wife Ray: “Anything I can do, Ray can Do it better.”

Although Charles’ name is often attributed to the most iconic design of the 20th century, he has always insisted that Ray is an equal partnership in many projects.

In 1945, Eameses founded LCW (leisure chair wood), which was later hailed by Time magazine as the greatest design of the 20th century. Initially, they hoped to use a piece of plywood to make an ergonomic chair, but they found that the material could easily break if it bends too much.

The final version of Ray and Charles used plywood to connect two molded plywood panels, creating an innovative design that was coveted all over the world and heralded the use of technology and modern materials in furniture production.

“ The characteristics of the interior are determined by the building itself, the occupants of the building, and the basic design concepts. “

She is known for the modernist aesthetics of clean lines and clear geometric shapes. These designs are humanized through textures, organic shapes and colors. The furniture she designs must not only be functional, but also related to the architecture of the space and its overall composition.

The design concept of her furniture is to transform the structure and language of modern buildings into furniture.

“Beauty can improve people’s lifestyle and way of thinking.”

Ferrieri was born on August 6, 1918 in Milan, Italy. He studied at the Politecnico di Milano and obtained a degree in architecture in 1943. She was one of the first women to graduate from this school. During his studies, Ferrieri worked closely with Franco Albini and was influenced by the Italian rationalist architect and Bauhaus.

Her design focuses on technological innovation through the use of new materials (such as plastic). In 1982, she created the first table made entirely of injection-molded plastic. In 1988, she made an armchair with a “marbled” plastic injection mixture. Anna Ferrieri has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Golden Compasses Award.

Ferrieri publicly acknowledged that professional women face obstacles in both the public and private life spheres. Anna Ferrieri found it difficult to balance the roles of designer, wife and mother.

In the early 1970s, Ferrieri joined the Soroptimists, an international feminist organization. By 1973, she served as the chairman of the organization and announced to the United Nations “International and Interdisciplinary Actions to Promote Human Rights, Especially the Situation of Women”.

“I always think that my independence in work and life is one of my greatest achievements.”

At the end of the 1950s, Gabriella Crespi began to work as a designer and showed her first collection in Milan. Starting in the early 1960s, the connection between Crespi and Dior will last for nearly two decades.

Although her design is not revolutionary, her vision is unique. Her works exude the charm and texture of aristocratic ladies, as well as a soul full of inspiration and talent.

Gabriella Crespi in her 40-year-old Milan home is surrounded by furniture designs that made her famous, including sunrise tables and chairs, heron sculptures and a 1974 candlestick. Photograph: James Mollison of The Wall Street Journal

Perhaps you can find hints of Pierre Cardin’s space furniture in the 70s in her creations, as well as Claude and Francois-Xavier created in the same year. Lalanne’s surrealistic animal style.

Gabriella Crespi’s work has extraordinary taste and personality, which stems from her inner passion for life and lifestyle.

“Three steps forward and two steps back still means that I have taken a step in the right direction.”

Ditzel is known as the “First Lady of Danish Furniture Design”. She started her career as an apprentice cabinetmaker at the Richards School in Denmark, and then went to the Arts and Crafts School to study furniture. Nanna graduated in 1946. In the same year, she married Jørgen, and together they formally established their own design studio. The first success was the Toadstools series that she designed since 1962, multifunctional stools and tables for children.

Nanna Ditzel lies on a wicker rattan lounge chair and footstool designed in 1961.

←Ditzel and her Toadstools and Lulu cradle.

→A molded stool made by Ditzel in 1969 with bolted armrests and backrest.

Perhaps the most legendary is the “Two People Bench” in 1989, where people sitting at right angles to each other. After winning the gold medal at the Ashikawa International Furniture Design Competition in Japan, the butterfly chair was launched the following year. The butterfly chair is cut from a 2 mm thick folded fiberboard and supported by six insect-like legs.

Ditzel’s greatest commercial success comes from the Trinidad Chair (Trinidad Chair), whose slotted seat and backrest help keep the chair light and airy. Since its launch in 1993, it has immediately become a hot-selling product for furniture manufacturer Fredericia.

Trinidad chair-Fredericia

“I always thought that the project I was working on would be the best.”

Patricia Urquiola was born in Oviedo, Spain, and has been living in Italy ever since. He is a well-known interior designer, architect and designer. Her works are both interesting and poetic, but at the same time not divorced from practicality. These characteristics are the magic behind her works.

They are the promoters of furniture design in the 20th century and the creators of the future. In their furniture works, they bloom independent, confident, challenging and innovative temperament, each of which can shine.

She rethinks tradition, reinvents and creates new things. Constantly exploring, the furniture designed has always created new experiences and surprises for users.