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Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather

The JS. THONET collection expands with the S 411 armchair and S 1070 table, as Jil Sander uses unbroken leather panels and minimal seaming to make this 1932 Bauhaus tubular steel structure look like a floating sculpture.

Alex Shen, Culture Editor
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather

What does a chair look like without visible stitching? Jil Sander's answer: a leather sculpture held up by tubular steel. This marks the second phase of her collaboration with legendary German furniture maker Thonet, JS. THONET, centered on a reinterpreted S 411 lounge chair and S 1070 table — both joining the original collection as expansion pieces for 2026.

The S 411 traces back to a Thonet factory design from 1932, its S-curved steel tube running continuously through to the armrests, whose covering is shaped like an ice skate blade to give the whole chair a floating visual quality. Sander's treatment here fully wraps the spring-cushioned seat in leather, closed off with minimal seams and piped backing to deliberately erase any sense of separate components — making the chair read as a single cast form rather than assembled furniture. It comes alongside a matching S 411 H ottoman, sized to pair with the B 97 side table launched in 2025.

On the table side, the story lives in the dividing line. The S 1070 originates from designer Glen Oliver Löw's 2004 concept, its 220 x 100 cm tabletop split in half down the long edge, with the two halves available in matching or contrasting colors. This split isn't just a visual trick — it also makes the table read as proportionally lighter than a solid slab, echoing the same Bauhaus logic, particularly Marcel Breuer's tubular steel construction, of using a metal frame to strip away the inherent weight of wooden furniture.

Both pieces come in two lines: SERIOUS and NORDIC. SERIOUS pairs a smoked polished titanium steel frame with high-gloss detailing and deeper leather tones like black, ruby red, green, and blue; NORDIC opts for a matte nickel-silver frame with a hint of gold shimmer, white-stained oak detailing, and lighter leather shades such as smoked walnut brown or snow white. Every finished piece bears the "JS. THONET" engraving on its steel frame as the collection's mark of authentication.

Pricing and release information have not yet been disclosed.

Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather
Jil Sander Wraps Thonet's Tubular Steel Frames in One Silent Slab of Leather

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