The Tolix chair, icon of industrial aesthetics

16 February 2024

Just under a century ago, in 1927, Tolix was born in France as a company specialized in the production of metal seats, which later became icons of the trendy industrial style today. A handful of years after this milestone, Tolix is preparing to experience a rebirth, led by Antoine Bejui and Emmanuel Diemoz who took it over in 2022, deeply believing in the value of the brand, its history, and its design archive. Tolix chairs were created to furnish public spaces and therefore with the aim of lasting over time and being resistant as well as comfortable. Simple and robust, they were immediately associated with an idea of durability and distinctive style that still characterizes the brand today. Still loved and highly sought after, the seats are preparing to experience a real rebirth thanks to the contribution of the new owners, already famous for the relaunch of the Balmain fashion house, who announce a rediscovery of the company’s design archives and the relaunch of a series of historical models.

First of all that of the T37 chair created for the Universal Exhibition held in Paris in 1937: it was a matter of furnishing the gardens of the Palais de Chaillot with comfortable seats and the company originally commissioned did not have enough chairs ready. And so Tolix was involved and supplied 12,000 examples of the T37 to furnish and become part of the landscape of the Parisian public gardens. It is no coincidence that in December 2006, this seat became part of the permanent collection of the Center Pompidou. And today, in a new color palette, it is preparing to furnish other enchanting outdoor spaces, public and private.

But not only that, since this, like other Tolix chairs, despite being created for the outdoors, has become the choice for who want to introduce iconic, industrial-style furniture indoors too. And it is precisely this furnishing trend which has become increasingly stronger and more refined in recent years, which has marked the great return of the Tolix chairs. The colours, the essential design, the evocative and retro design alongside the prestige of the brand, make them an interesting, significant but informal and familiar solution. Among the most famous models, next to the T37, there is undoubtedly the Chaise A, a chair which, thanks to the lines and colors offered, adapts perfectly to various rooms in the house: from an industrial-style kitchen to the dining area of a rustic chic open space, passing through an office corner with character.

Iconic, with a strong identity and a one-of-a-kind design, the Tolix chairs elevate the industrial style and make it meaningful, fun and refined. And the same goes for the other furnishings of the company which, despite being current, retain all the evocative strength of the 1900s. Outdoor tables that work perfectly even in an interior with character and container furniture whose aesthetics recall, in a domestic key, workshop furniture are just some of the examples of furniture offered by Tolix.

It is the industrial style declined through the elegant lens of French taste, that ability to amaze in a discreet way, to furnish in a naturally sophisticated way. With original but never brazen proportions, solutions, and color combinations. Tolix chairs and furnishings are the perfect answer for those looking for a more domestic and refined version of industrial style furnishings, preserving their identity but toning it down with a series of formal, material, and chromatic details, current and refined. The roundness of the backrest, the shape of the legs, the lightness combined with the sturdiness of the chairs tell of a project that goes far beyond the industrial trend to become an absolute icon of French design.

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