WAGNER Living and KXWS seek the perfect balance between design and creativity

But how exactly do you express a concept like this through an item of furniture? The first step was for KXWS to translate it into a bespoke piece of artwork, drawing on influences as broad as the sociology of Charles Eastman and ’90s zine publishing to create an abstract central motif. They then began exploring processes from beyond the traditional world of furniture design, looking at complex, interlocking embroidery techniques more commonly found in items of luxury fashion. Using this approach, they were able to weave the illustration into the fabric of the chair itself before ‘fixing’ it using heat treatment to keep it taught and capable of bearing weight. In a remarkable feat of both design and craftsmanship, the finished embroidered motif is preserved on both faces of the fabric, meaning there is no ‘hidden’ side of messy, loose threads, as is often found with embroidered pieces.