Lockdown has been challenging but with every dark cloud there comes a silver lining – as Ross Didier can attest. During the weeks of staying at home and watching television, Didier turned the channel and began to feast his eyes on the haute couture fashion parades throughout the decades. His attention was immediately drawn to the fashion and form created by great designers, such as Alexander McQueen, Kenzo Takada and Balenciaga. He identified the sleek silhouettes and refined detailing of the garments and so, the seed for Apparel was sown.

Didier has designed and manufactured many unique and exciting furniture collections over the years, lately with the Puffalo Lounging Collection. However, with the new Apparel Collection, the wingback chair has been reinvented and reworked from a previous design concept into a new and splendid model.

There is a curvaceousness to the sleek lines of the Apparel Wingback, almost a femininity, with a voluptuous profile and nipped in waistline. There’s not a button in sight. Instead, the shape has been achieved, in the concept stage, by using a belt to hold the fabric in place. The belt helped mould the form that has then been translated from Wingback chair to Low Back armchair and Footstool.

The family of three in the Apparel collection (at the moment), with the flagship piece the Wingback, sit perfectly together or indeed are splendid apart. There is comfort in spades and they delight the eye. Made with steel frames, moulded plywood inner shells and layered with premium quality polyurethane foams, the simplicity of the design belies the complexities of the workmanship.

Although traditionally a wingback chair could sometimes overpower a space, there is an effortlessness in Didier’s design, and his Wingback appears to defy gravity and float above the floor. That’s not to say the Apparel Wingback and Low Back armchair or even the Footstool are easily missed, they are indeed statement pieces for a discerning clientele.

Apparel presents the opportunity to be bold and forthright with strong colour and complementing powder-coat steel, or a single shade in upholstery and paint. But whatever the choice, the Apparel collection is not only luxurious but also a contemporary furniture inclusion with myriad application. The fact that the covers can be upholstered with a multitude of fabrics and leathers presents multiple opportunities to change the look of the chairs or stool but also the visage of a room.

While Didier is a prolific designer, each collection builds on the last, and it’s easy to see why he is rated one of the best furniture designers in the country. The Apparel family is a sophisticated addition to his other collections and brings a hint of the traditional into the modern day.

Who doesn’t love a wingback? It’s comfort at its best and the Apparel Wingback chair has to be one of this year’s top designs, no doubt about it. Love this Mr. Didier and I’m sure everyone else will too.

Didier
didier.com.au