New Lucite dining chairs in a Fan District home recently renovated by Lola Tucker Interior Design (Photo by Gordon Gregory)
During the Roaring ’20s, furniture, fashion and product designers — conceiving everything from flapper looks to movies, automobiles and interiors — looked to the future for inspiration. In 1928, scientists in the DuPont research and development lab created acrylic, a thermoplastic material with the luxe high gloss of glass. It was moldable at high temperatures, solid when cooled, durable and shatter resistant. They called it Lucite and introduced it to the American public at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in the DuPont “Wonder World of Chemistry” exhibit, where a machine transformed a plastic powder into a Lucite tumbler. Plexiglas, a German variation, debuted in 1933.
The utilitarian aspects of acrylic, coupled with its high-gloss transparency, have influenced architects and designers when exploring the relationship between form and function. (Noteworthy: Early on, industrial designers used Plexiglas to fabricate aircraft windows and lenses for lighthouses and aquariums. During World War II, the military used the material for airplane windshields, submarine periscopes and more.)
Photo courtesy Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Library of Congress
Lucite's versatility has led designers to use it in creating everything from interpretations of traditional and historic furniture forms to sleek, avant-garde looks. It’s functional, doesn’t take up visual space in a room and, no matter the form, Lucite furniture is always modern.
1930s
Among the first to recognize the beauty of this modern material and its potential for furniture was Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics mogul and art collector, who became enamored with the material when developing Lucite packaging for her beauty products. In 1939, she commissioned an entire suite of Lucite furniture for her New York City apartment from Hungarian artist and designer Ladislas Medgyes. The pieces he created were considered modernist — not because of their forms, which were quite traditional — but because they were crafted from thick, curvilinear Lucite.
Photo courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art
1940s – 1960s
A husband-and-wife team known for their avant-garde approach to furniture design, Erwine and Estelle Laverne are recognized for their innovative use of new materials and sculptural forms, which were both functional and practical.
The Lavernes are known for their “Invisible Group” collection of sleek, sculptural, see-through chairs named for flowers, including the Lily, Jonquil and Daffodil, as well as one of their most famous designs, the Champagne chair, with a molded Plexiglas seat on an aluminum base, designed in 1962.
Photo courtesy Eero Aarnio Archive
1960s – 1970s
Lucite or acrylic furniture hit its peak in the 1960s and ’70s. The iconic 1960s Bubble chair, designed by Finnish furniture designer Eero Aarnio, was revolutionary in its day. The futuristic design, a round sphere of transparent Lucite, hangs from the ceiling to create the illusion that the chair is floating.
One of the first to employ Lucite as a singular material, California furniture designer Charles Hollis Jones — also known as the Godfather or King of Lucite, whose work with the material has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institution — discovered the benefits of designing with acrylic while working in Europe. He said he preferred it to glass because it’s shatterproof and carries light better. Jones founded CHJ Designs in the late 1960s, designing pieces for established design showrooms such as Hudson-Rissman.
Celebrities and style icons including Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Carson, playwright Tennessee Williams and architect Paul László embraced Jones’ modernist design aesthetic, commissioning custom pieces for their homes. His Lucite furniture also had a cameo in the James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever.”
Photo courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art
2000s
Before French designer Philippe Starck produced the Ghost Chair in the early 2000s, he designed nightclubs and hotels, as well as apartments in the Élysée Palace in Paris. While some projects were more traditional than others, his preferences for fluid, organic lines and playful details are evident throughout the interiors and the products he created.
His most iconic piece, the Ghost Chair produced by Kartell, celebrates the form of historic Louis XVI armchairs in clear Lucite.
