Why it matter to you that our Famous Iconic furniture brands have their own production facilities to craft your furniture in?
I have been involved in Scandinavian Design for 30 years including the last 20 as Director Of Danish Design Co in Singapore where I have the privilege of representing over 25 famous northern European brands. Scandinavian design from the best of Scandinavian brands is truly timeless and stands the test of time. Of course, many furniture brands claim this but only the true heritage brands deliver it. We call these brands our Iconic collection.
Eilersen Playground Sofa from our Iconic Collection
What makes them Iconic heritage brands? How can you see the differentiation and why does it matter to you? Spoiler alert – you can’t tell with just price – some generic produced brands claim they are individually made and price accordingly. We support some non-heritage brands we call these our New Modern Collection. They deliver good value furniture but not timeless furniture, these brands tend to have their focus on marketing and they choose designs and then subcontract out the production to various factories across the world. This is a well-trodden path for many consumer goods but it is not the path that leads to timeless design and not the path taken by our Iconic brands.
Bolia Rod Shelving System from our New Modern Collection
The Iconic furniture houses – those that are steeped in tradition and history, like Eilersen, Fredericia, Carl Hansen, and even the likes of Montana and Skovby. They are truly furniture houses. They are makers with their own production facilities, they employ their own well-tested techniques and methods for furniture crafting. They have furniture makers who come into the business, in many cases as apprentices, and build up their knowledge and craft.
These are not brands that employ the latest designers to continually churn out new designs and get subcontractors to make them. They are the brands that have been making their own furniture in their own production facilities year after year and developing their understanding of furniture step by step and improving year after year. It is a very different proposition than those companies that choose a design -in-house or from external designers – send that design to subcontractors to bid on the price to make it and then push it into the market – that is selling marketing not crafting timeless furniture pieces. It’s a different perspective and a different choice as a consumer.
So when choosing your timeless pieces ask where they are made and how they are made. Ask what goes into them, what the techniques are and critically ask if the brands own their own production. These are key to understanding what you are buying. A timeless piece comes with all that built-in history of making the production better year after year. of developing the way the wood is managed. That is what you should be paying for. To be honest, with major brands where production is outsourced, you are paying a large part for the marketing awareness of the brand not necessarily the careful build and crafting of the furniture. Does that mean you have to wait for timeless pieces – yes they are normally produced only once you buy them – they are not mass-produced but individually produced for you. In the example of Eilersen – they have been making upholstery for 150 years and so they have built up good processes, methods, and expertise that are carefully managed and controlled in their own production.
They manage and control every single element of the build of their sofas end to end. So you can choose exactly what you want in your hand-produced item and you can know exactly what goes into it – with the guarantee that each element is the best that Eilersen can source. That knowledge and focus on detail is impossible to replicate when you choose to outsource your production to different factories. That is much more a mass-produced model employed by a certain well-known Swedish brand!
