 | | | | I'm being haunted by a chair. We all are, actually; it's a certain metal chair that you might not be able to describe easily but, much like obscenity, you recognize it when you see it. It's vaguely industrial-looking, with a mostly open back and tapered legs. It appears in bars with Edison bulbs dangling from the ceiling and restaurants whose menus feature cutesy categories like "To Share" and "To Keep to Yourself." It appeared on a recent vacation I took to Thailand (this is a brag!), lining the walls at an intimidating coffee shop that, foodwise, only served waffles on a large wooden plank. Luckily, I am not alone in my ambient wonderings about this chair; noted design sleuth Eliza Brooke plumbed its secrets for her latest Noticed column. It's based on the Tolix, a French chair first brought to market in 1934, and is lauded for its stackability, weatherproofing, and easy maintenance. It does not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
—Alanna Okun, deputy editor for The Goods | | | | | | | The metal chair that's in every restaurant | | | |  | | Sarah Lawrence for Vox | | What it is: The chair. Its metal body might be painted bright yellow, red, or pastel turquoise — often it's left in its natural silver tone — but its sturdy, curved legs and indented back are unmistakable. Where it is: Across the country, in airy coffee shops and dimly lit wine bars, at the local Pret a Manger and upscale Italian restaurants. You can buy a version for your home at Bob's Discount Furniture or Urban Outfitters, among other retailers. Principally, though, this chair and its corresponding stool live in the public sphere as the seats of choice for all kinds of restaurants, bars, and cafes. Why you're seeing it everywhere: The chair is having a moment, definitely, but it's deeply not new. The ones we see today are based on the Tolix "A Chair," which the French designer Xavier Pauchard brought to market in 1934, according to the Tolix website. The company, bought out of bankruptcy in 2004, still sells the stackable style today. The Vitra Design Museum in Germany says Pauchard's galvanized steel chair was in fact a riff on an earlier design by another Frenchman, Joseph Mathieu, who created his stacking metal "Multipl's" chair in the early 1920s. Design historian Charlotte Fiell, the co-author of several books on seating, says she's seen other, similar chairs from that period and finds it impossible to say whether Mathieu's version was the original. "In those days and before, there wasn't such strict design rights protection," Fiell says. "If someone saw a chair that was doing well, they made their own homage to it or variant of it, so it's pretty difficult to tell for sure who was the originator of it." | | Read the rest of the story >> | | | | | | For sale: Instagram account, lightly used | | | |  | | Sarah Lawrence for Vox | | "Beautiful or not?" captions a typical post on @fashions__ootd. The Instagram account posts photos of different outfits against a white background and asks its followers to comment with their opinions. A typical post features a carousel of photos of jeans and sweaters with a slew of growth-promoting hashtags. It's common to see these sorts of niche interest profiles throughout Instagram, accounts that rely on generic pictures to build a following. A closer look at @fashions__ootd, though, will show something a little less common — in its bio, it advertises that it's for sale. The same is true for @ikpowervintage, which, until a few weeks ago, was advertising its for-sale status in its Instagram stories. @ikpowervintage posts photos of stylish young women, usually at the beach or in European cities, all edited with the same grainy filter. It's racked up 33,000 followers, and a highlighted story on the page lists @ikpowervintage's prices for shoutouts to other profiles — $5 for a post, $3 for a story. Although Instagram's terms and conditions strictly forbid users to "buy, sell, or transfer any aspect of your account (including your username)," accounts like these are sold on Facebook pages, in Instagram direct messages, and even on dedicated online marketplaces across the world. A single account can sell for thousands of dollars, depending on the size of its follower base. And an entire economy — of buyers, sellers, middlemen, professional flippers, and marketplaces — has sprung up around Instagram accounts. Followers are what make Instagram, which reached 1 billion users in June 2018, so popular with buyers and resellers; a large audience can be translated into revenue by posting sponsored content, selling shoutouts on Instagram Stories, or selling products directly. For those willing to spend the cash upfront, buying an account that already has thousands of followers can ostensibly save a burgeoning memer or startup business the onerous process of building an audience. | | Read the rest of the story >> | | | | | | More good stuff to read today | | | | | | |
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