BACK FROM THE GRAVE: RESURRECTION OF A CLUB CHAIR
I like old things. I respond to what’s been used and ages and starts to show its character Tweed jackets, canvas bags and the rest. But sometimes it gets so worn in it can't function. Naturally, I have a hard time admitting this is the case. It’s been hard to say goodbye to my beloved white bucks that have been re-soled three times—there can’t be a fourth. I drove my even more beloved Saab about four years too long (the check engine light was celebrating its eight anniversary of being illuminated).
Fear and Loathing in the West Village. Photo: Adam Shurr
That brings me to the old club chair that’s been in my apartment as long as I’ve lived in New York. Years ago it started to give way and then finally it really gave way. For the last year it was basically a sculpture. If somebody tried to sit down before I could warn them they would discover the springs were useless and their eyes would widen in alarm as if they were trying to rest on a stack of Yellow Pages. I posted a photo on Instagram of the chair on its last legs. All things must end, the caption read. But wait. For once my stubbornness and keeping something too long paid off. I received a message from Daryl Calfee at the leather company, Moore & Giles. He liked the story of the chair (it was a gift from my father, who had the sibling of the chair in his study). Daryl said their experts could match the leather, repair the chair and bring it back to life. They would even pick it up and drop it off. Miracle of miracles! Blessings to Daryl. I’ve never been so happy for Instagram in my life.
A few months later, I got word from Daryl that the chair was ready. Did I want to see it? I did indeed. So I went down to Lynchburg, VA where Moore & Giles is based. They have an incredible modern warehouse full of tanned hides that they’ve acquired from all over the world. It’s an ancient process but a modern business, they can sell custom hides (in different colors and weights) to interior designers, hotels and renowned companies like Ralph Lauren. They can customize leather to meet the requirements for private jets. Moore & Giles does not just work behind the scenes, they also makes their own bags.
And they work with experts. What they did for the chair was incredible. It is completely restored, but they found a type of leather that’s soft but rough and looks just like the old chair. Now that it’s back I realize haven’t sat this high up on the chair in years. I had forgotten what a normal chair was like—I felt like a king. Not only that, during the restoration they found a board in the center that was signed and dated by Jacques, the Frenchman who made the chair. That’s amazing to me—it was hidden on the inside, he never would have imagined anybody would see it. Adam Shurr and Mitchell Bryant, who work for Moore & Giles, (and also took the chair on its road trip to and from Virginia), made a wonderful short film about it, which you can see here.
As a work of craftsmanship and act of generosity, the restoration of this chair is one of my favorite things to happen this year. Moore & Giles gave a future to something I’ve loved for years and has been loved by people I never knew for years before that. In a world with too many disposable things, it takes vision and effort to make the worthwhile things endure.
The restored chair, back in its element.