Martin Stoll for Giroflex - A Swiss Response to an Icon

This chair has made quite an impression and started lots of conversations with customers during its week on the workbench.

Many people have understandably assumed it's an Eames chair,  it shares the same curved bentwood shell, the generous leather cushions, ottoman and reclining mechanism

However, the chair was designed by Martin Stoll for the Swiss manufacturer Giroflex, during the 1960s - a period when many European manufacturers were responding to the enormous success of the Eames lounge chair by design duo Charles and Ray Eames. 

Rather than simply copying the American design, Stoll approached the problem differently.

Like the Eames chair, it uses a beautifully formed bentwood backrest, giving the chair its sculptural shape. But the engineering of the upholstery is quite different. Instead of the metal hooking system used by the Eames chair to secure its cushions, Stoll developed a different system of poppers embedded directly into the wooden shell, which attach to the back of the cushions.

It’s an elegant piece of problem solving. The cushions sit securely in place, the fixings are almost invisible, and the overall construction is simpler and more economical to produce, while still retaining the same sense of luxury and comfort.

The chair also shares another characteristic with its American counterpart - it reclines, offering two seating positions, making it practical as well as comfortable.

The Giroflex story

The manufacturer behind the chair has a surprisingly long history. Giroflex began in 1872, when Albert Stoll founded a chair factory in Koblenz, Switzerland producing bentwood seating for cafes, shops and hotels. 

By the early 20th century the company had turned its attention to office seating. In 1926 Stoll developed and patented the “Federdreh” spring swivel mechanism, one of the earliest suspended swivel chair systems. The innovation was so important that the company eventually adopted the name Giroflex which is a combination of the words “turn” and “flex”. 

Although best known for office seating, Giroflex produced a number of beautifully engineered lounge chairs during the midcentury period, often combining bentwood structures with upholstered cushions, designs that feel very much in keeping with Scandinavian and American modernism.

Martin Stoll

Martin Stoll was part of the Stoll family that had been involved in chair manufacturing for generations. In the mid 20th century he helped develop the company’s seating designs while the wider family business expanded into different furniture brands and factories across Switzerland and Germany. 

His work tends to sit somewhere between Swiss engineering precision and midcentury comfort, often pairing technical solutions with warm natural materials such as walnut veneer and leather.

The restoration

When this chair arrived at the workshop the original upholstery had seen better days. The structure, however, was excellent, a testament to the quality of its construction.

After carefully stripping the old leather upholstery, the cushions were rebuilt and reupholstered in this beautiful soft tan leather, keeping the original poppers embedded in the wooden shell and adding the opposing new popper halves to the leather so they connect neatly. The bentwood frame was cleaned and revived, allowing the grain and warm tone of the wood to come back to life.

What I love about pieces like this is that they sit slightly outside the usual canon. Everyone recognises the Eames lounge chair, but chairs like this tell a more interesting story, how designers across Europe responded to that iconic form, adapting it with their own materials, engineering and ideas.

And I personally think this one feels like a particularly thoughtful interpretation.