Established & Sons x Maharam

Established & Sons is a British brand representing all that is innovative in contemporary design. The Established & Sons collection includes some of the most important examples of 21st-century design. Many of the pieces have been acquired by international museums, galleries, institutions and private collections.

These designs have often set the tone for the global conversation on design and mirror the essential character, style and identity of London – the birthplace and home of Established & Sons. Taking a unique approach to collaboration, Established & Sons develops and produces work by leading practitioners and nurtures the careers of young designers.

Just recently, Maharam was proud to announce a special residency with Established & Sons. Convening the expertise and design commitments of each studio, the breakout spaces of Maharam’s creative headquarters in New York were thoughtfully furnished with new pieces by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Pauline Deltour, Konstantin Grcic, and Sebastian Wrong, among others, as part of the international debut of Established & Son’s new Live/Work collection.

The collection responds to the evolving use of traditional offices as flexible, communal workspaces and the increasingly blurred distinction between living and working environments. Presenting Maharam textiles on all upholstered pieces, the residency posits a flexible and multifunctional environment for focused work, informal meetings, or relaxation within an active contract interior.

Of the textile selection, Sebastian Wrong, design director of Established & Sons says: “The main criteria was to present each piece in a new light, environment, or use.”

Visitors to the residency encountered Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Cassette sofa within Maharam’s minimal lobby, invitingly upholstered in Roam—a densely tufted felt boucle woven in Belgium. For Grid, the Bouroullecs’ modular Live/Work system, the design studios opted for three different textiles to highlight its dynamic potential and flexibility. Emphasizing the residential feel of natural fibers, upholsteries include Superweave, a chunky woven wool reissued from an original 1966 design by Alexander Girard, Flurry, a plush tricolored construction, and Monk’s Wool, a lofty wool woven on an island off the coast of Scotland that has been producing textiles for centuries.

Also ideal for breakout spaces, Sebastian Wrong’s Lucio Chair has the option of an integrated side table for ad-hoc working. Wrong opted to complement the Lucio’s flowing shape with Maharam textiles Valor—a wool satin from the United Kingdom—and Hearth, a nubby combination of wool and cotton woven in Belgium. According to Wrong, “Lucio has been a real lesson in the true value of upholstery textiles. The textile gives the form life, like a skin, and this has revealed so many possibilities for the design.”2 of 4

Established & Sons’ Beam and Bloc tables, Heidi Stool, Cho Light, and Filigrana Light appear throughout the office, including Maharam’s lunchroom, whose walls feature The Wanderer, a custom work created by Erwan Bouroullec to celebrate the occasion. Printed on textile with aluminium foil backing, sets of two and four free-hanging panels display meandering lines created through a coding process Bouroullec describes as “drawing with numbers.”

While founded more than a century apart, Maharam and Established & Sons are united by a shared commitment to deliver new perspectives through innovative use of material and technique along with interdisciplinary collaboration. A focus on utility and longevity underlies both companies’ approaches to product development, as does a desire to design for a range of applications without compromise. “We’re honoured to host Established & Sons in our space,” says Maharam’s Senior Vice President of Design Mary Murphy. “There is a natural affinity between the two companies, both in our many shared collaborators and their exacting approach to form, colour, and materials, which we have long admired.”