BESPOKE | APRIL 2021
Dedon re-designs the summer
BESPOKE | APRIL 2021
Since it was founded in 1990, Dedon has been on a mission to bring craft, innovation and interior quality to outdoor furniture. Beginning with an ingenious weatherproof synthetic fibre, the company set out to create a new kind of woven outdoor furniture, combining modern technology with luxurious hand craftsmanship. A search for the world’s best weavers lead Dedon’s team to Cebu Island, in the Philippines, while the uniqueness of its product inspired the brand to work with world-renowned designers such as Jean-Marie Massaud and Philippe Starck, who both added award-winning collections to the company portfolio. Another long-term collaborator, African-American designer Stephen Burks, has merged tribal traditions, age-old artisanal craft techniques and his own contemporary aesthetic for the design of the ‘Kida’ hanging lounge chair for Dedon.
In conceiving ‘Kida’, Burks sought to reinvent the hanging lounge chair. Drawing inspiration from his close collaboration with Dedon's master weavers in the Philippines, he developed a design that remains cosy but looks and feels less enclosed. ‘The magic of being at Dedon’s headquarters and challenging everybody to find unfamiliar ways of doing things that give a fresh and uniquely Dedon feeling to the collection is always my mission,’ explains Burks.
With its organically shaped frame of powder-coated aluminium, the ‘Kida’ hanging lounge chair is lightweight yet exceptionally sturdy. Intended for ‘sunrises, starscapes, and everything in between’, it is also Dedon’s first chair collection to be wrapped rather than woven. The chair uses Dedon’s Fiber Touch material, which has an especially soft tactile quality, to create a cradle-like organic form that is open, airy, light and inviting.
‘Kida is all about feeling the freedom of the great outdoors. Playful yet sophisticated, it allows you to swing into a new adventure,’ says Chloe Sos, marketing director of Dedon.
The collection comes in three striped colourways. Multi-hued and vibrant, Glow Touch is an inviting mélange that exudes a fun and playful character; Ease Touch, an elegant and neutral bicolour, focuses the attention on the chair’s form; while Dusk Touch offers a striking contrast through its accented and dark colourway. The chair is topped with a single cushion for seat and head, perfectly positioned for a laidback summer afternoon. Says Burks, ‘Kida’ makes you feel ‘as free as the breeze’.
Discover more at dedon.com
