Lady Chair

I was planning on adding this project to my portfolio, but that may take a few more days as I wrangle with Photoshop to put someone sitting in the chair for scale and context. In any case, after Solidworks crashed on me about 18 times in two days (no wonder I left this chair unfinished for 5 months), I figured I might as well preview it here first before I get distracted by other things (like b-day, interview, apartment hunting, new job, and the design collective)

"Feminine movement, gesture, and posture must exhibit not only constriction, but grace as well, and a certain eroticism restrained by modesty: all three."
(p. 68, Femininity and Domination, Sandra Lee Bartky)

The Lady is an observation and socially-driven chair design. The design is constrained and inspired by the way in which women sit and how they became to sit by the social conventions of femininity. Lipstick rouge-stained oak with a laser-cut baroque pattern, the Lady takes up a small footprint and becomes an extension of the lady sitting in it. Whereas women tend to sit more forward in their seats, the Lady has a considerably more shallow seat, encouraging this sitting tendency while diminishing space footprint.

In other words, basically I had this idea for a chair after I noticed how whenever I sat (and most other women), I was only occupying about 6 inches of the edge of my seat, while the back 8 or so inches were left un-sat. Since I am easily absorbed/distracted by what is in front of me, in most scenarios, most of my chair is left jutting out behind me while I perch on the edge. By cutting down the seat depth (from an average seat depth of ~16" down to 7") , the sensation of sitting on the edge is still there, while a more "lady-like" posture is encouraged due to the lack of slouching space.

My mom would be proud that her insistent reminders about sitting up right during my childhood actually did sink in.