First and foremost, Airborne is the story of an iconic chair. A butterfly made of leather and steel. In 1951, the French company starts producing the “Butterfly” chair, created by an Argentinian and a Catalan designer ten years earlier, and renames it the “AA chair”. A tribute to its shape, and to the French Magazine Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, directed by André Bloc, a friend of Airborne’s founder Charles Bernard.
Today the company innovates, and works with young talented designer such as Pierre Guariche or Olivier Mourgue. Between 1951 and 1975, 200 different designs are produced. That’s it for the story.
Now Airborne is directed by Christine Pfeiffer and Patricia Lejeune. In 2010, the two friends took over the company based in Gironde, in the South West of France. At the time Airborne was in liquidation. The two young women are both huge fans of the AA chair, and want to make it famous again. As well as the AO table, another furniture from the 50s. Patricia is in charge of logistics and trades, Christine takes care of creation and communication.
The two business women did not only revive Vintage designs. Since 2015, they have produced a new collection of tables, created by the designers of At-Once and called “Miss Trèfle” (Miss Clover in English). A table composed of three round parts of solid oak, available in small and XXL size.
The AA chairs are still there. Their style has been modernized: a Tibet lamb fur cover for the “Lhassa” edition, an orange leather one for the “Buffalo”, and a chainmail cover for the edition interpreted by LE LABO design.
Meet Patricia Lejeune and Christine Pfeiffer through their FOCUS.
T/O/S.
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