LA Chair 2025 - LA Chair is a curatorial project to capture this moment in chair history, in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles region cultivates a specific hybrid of “West Coast Studio Craft.”

There is more of everything here. More people. More craftspeople. Tradespeople. Vendors. Wholesalers. Distributors. Job shops. Garage shops. Factories. Big Factories. Design legacy. Craft legacy.

Sam Maloof sent a letter to Charles Eames asking for business advice, if he should license his designs or go the studio craft route. We know which path he chose.

They were both doing a the same thing, but a different thing, at the same time, in LA. (Even though they technically lived 60 miles across town from each other.)

Los Angeles is underneath some of the most informative designs and designers in modern architecture and design history. This project is a continuation of that documentation.

We make different moves on the West Coast. Just look at the work.

And then we double down again, differentiating time tens;

Here in LA. We make chairs that look every which way.

This curation, this project, is a Polaroid snapshot. A survey.

What is being made here right now.

That’s it. That is the criteria.

  1. Made In LA

  2. Currently.

  3. Must be sit-able. Must publish price. Must be in Production (as in, someone can order it if they like it!)


Do you have an LA Chair?

Email me - eric@erictrine.com


Save the Date - Friday, September 26th, 10am - Signal Shops, DTLA.

As part of LA Design Weekend, LA Chair will be the kick-off event!

We’ve got a lot of fun things in store! Stay tuned!


The aim of this project is to create a working archive of chairs designed and made in LA currently, culminating in a publication: “LA Chair” (2026ish).

We are at the very beginning stages…

In 2020 I was asked to co-curate an exhibition on California Design for the Long Beach Museum of Art. We narrowed the field and selected 20 studios working in LA, as if we were curating a show back in 1970.

We were trying to capture the zeitgeist rather pull from the deep archives.

This project seeks to do the same. There is so much being made here in LA, and in so many different aesthetics.



The first event was held at the Stephen Kenn Loft in the Arts District in DTLA in collaboration with programming for Los Angeles Design Weekend.

LA Chair - Event I - June 21, 2024, 10am-12pm.

Chairs By:

Bend Goods, Brendan Sowersby, Haoda Ma, Nathan Max, Sugihara Fine Furniture, Stephen Kenn, Tomoki Design