Bilou Bilou
A luxury Italian furniture-maker’s riff on the classic Thonet chair
Bilou Bilou, a play on Thonet chairs, recently caught our attention for its subtly luxurious reinterpretation of the classic cafe seating in the Beau Rivage bar in Lausanne, Switzerland. Now, with the just-opened NYC branch of
Promemoria, the manufacturer of the chair, we look forward to seeing more of its sensuous pared-down lines stateside.
First introduced in 2003, the Bilou Bilou is available covered in leather or in any of 12 rich colors of stretch velvet, but we prefer the family-owned brand’s trademark mix of seductive surfaces in the combination of glossy polished beech and leather. This use of high-end materials, paired in unusual ways and reinvented with contemporary shapes as well as superlative craftsmanship, runs through Promemoria. A progressive approach to design balancing a playful sensibility with the utmost in artisan furniture-making techniques, their philosophy is perhaps best defined by their mascot, a frog—because it always moves forward.
