There are some styles that never go out of fashion, and look as fresh today as they did when they were created. Ironically, these tend to be mid-century pieces of furniture, whose name might include a timestamp but whose power to look contemporary lives on. 'The joy of most mid-century furniture is that it is clean-lined, and was created with a utilitarian mindset - or with functionality embedded into its reason for existence,' says Livingetc editor in chief Pip Rich. 'This is what makes a piece of furniture timeless - its ability to still be useful (perhaps because it's the most comfortable a chair can be, or the most practical a piece of storage can be) and to not create too much visual clutter.'
The other reason mid century furniture tends to be timeless is because of how customizable it is. The Egg chair can come in a variety of different fabrics, the Eames lounger can be in everything from leather to cowhide. These allow you to update the item occasionally without ever having to swap it out completely. A true test of timelessness.