Cab 412 free-standing cowhide design chair

TAILOR-MADE GARMENT

Cab is the world’s first free-standing cowhide design chair, informed by the relationship between the skeleton and the skin; an authentic example of production excellence that requires multiple stages of artisan workmanship to create a trendy tailored-to-fit object.

“This was a new kind of chair, constructed totally out of leather, much cloned since then.” Thus Mario Bellini describes Cab, a best-seller that he designed in the 1970s, which is now a signature piece in Cassina’s I Contemporanei collection. Cab was the first-ever chair to feature a free-standing leather structure, inspired by how our skin fits over our skeleton. The upholstery consists of sixteen pieces of saddle leather. Individually die-cut, they then undergo fourteen discrete procedures, again by hand. The pieces are sewn together only when their outer edges have been trimmed to ensure a perfect fit. Once assembled, the cover is attached to the chair’s steel skeleton and held in place by means of a zipper fastening, as in a bespoke tailored garment. Cab is available in a wide variety of colours.

“A new kind of chair, made entirely of cowhide, often cloned today” – this is how Mario Bellini described the best-selling chair-armchair developed in the golden age of Italian design and today an iconic piece in the Cassina collection.

Its upholstery is made up of 21 parts in cowhide that undergo lengthy processing by hand. The upholstery is sewn and hand-fitted to the steel skeleton and closed with a zipper, like a real custom-tailored garment.