Joe Plush armchair (50th anniversary special edition_2020) is designed in 1970 by Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi/Centro Studi Poltronova for Poltronova with metal frame structure, padding with preformed polyurethane foam, covering with 10 sq meters of high quality faux fur, available in three colors: taffy pink, dove grey and baby blue.
Joe is a big comfortable chair in the form of a giant baseball glove, mounted on invisible wheels. With this project the designers, inspired by the poetics of Pop Art, gave material form to their admiration for the legendary American baseball star Joe DiMaggio. With a courageous shift of scale, they transformed the glove into a welcoming place to sit, inserting a hyperrealist figure borrowed from the world of art into the domestic environment. The armchair Joe has a very original shape, but its cover requires using superb craftsmanship. Designed in the 1970s with what was in those days the innovative technique of pre-formed expanded polyurethane - permitting foaming items into any shape - it took highly accurate manual work to faithfully reproduce the classic leather baseball glove on a giant scale. Today, just as in the past, the cover is made like an haute couture dress, in order to ensure the very best quality, and each armchair is unique. Each armchair takes 10 square metres of high quality material cut out using scissors, in a very accurate manner because the cut will be visible. The seam is machine- sewn, and at the end of each seam, the threads are knotted together to make sure they stay tied even after many years. The 140 metal eyelets are put in by hand. It then takes many hours to add the soft padding to the polyurethane foam, and to put the cover on and seal it at the bottom, pulling the strings through the metal eyelets. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the armchair Joe designed by DDL Studio, Centro Studi Poltronova has created four special editions for a must—have item which has never gone out of the catalogue (Joe Jeans, Joe Plush, Joe Whip and Joe Gold). Joe Plush, entirely clad in high quality faux fur, aspires to becoming an interior decoration toy, very soft and embracing, and is dedicated to all those who have a dreamer’s soul. Four signs branded onto the product guarantee its authenticity: the name Joe, the signature of the designers, the star and the 50th anniversary mark. Object welcomed into the most beautiful homes and most important museums in the world.