The port and resort city of Acapulco lies on Mexico’s Pacific Coast and features in more than one song. In its heyday in the mid-20th century, it was a romantic getaway for the international jet set: Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton for the second time there, and Jackie and John F. Kennedy honeymooned there. And it gave its name to a one of the great classics of 20th century design. The Acapulco chair has no known designer, though Mexican Cecilia Len Barra claimed to have given it its name. One persistent rumour surrounding the Acapulco chair’s origins is that a French tourist was suffering in the Mexican heat and took his cue from the string hammocks, which date back to the Mayans, to create an aerated seat.
Whatever its origins, the Acapulco chair represents the happy marriage of Modernist theories of furniture, the joyous colours of the mid-century tourism industry, and classic elements of Mexican design. The chairs’ tripod structure recalls pre-colonial artifacts and can be seen in several traditional items still being made today: morcajetes carved from volcanic stone, for instance, or pottery. (Their three legs are also much better for uneven ground, which makes them a good choice for outdoor furniture!
They can come in a range of shapes (round, avocado-shaped, or with a straight seat and back), but are composed of steel frames, which are then strung with extruded polythene. This stringing is continuous, and the result is that the chairs can adapt to the weight of the person sitting in them, making them incredibly comfortable. This concern for the body of the sitter makes them of a piece with all the other famous chairs of the twentieth century – the Panton, the Wishbone, the Wassily, or anything by the Eameses.
We source our Acapulco chairs from a tiny family-run workshop in the state of Guanajuato. They get the frames from a nearby foundry, and do the stringing themselves. Whenever Tom visits, he chooses out the colours himself, and if often able to combine the trip with a dip in a local thermal spring, so, we’re told, “It’s relaxing on all accounts”. Once the chairs are assembled, they cannot be dismantled. Given their unusual shape and how much volume they occupy, you can imagine that they are quite difficult to ship! Consequently we only have very limited stock of them. But we can guarantee that margaritas taste extra delicious when sipped in one!
That’s all from us for the moment. We’ll have some other exciting announcements in months to come, but for now, please enjoy your summers and hasta luego!
Salud, Milagros
