The rather young, Canada-based lifestyle brand departo released its folding chair—very beautiful yet rather expensive at $295—last year as part of its collection.
In 2019, George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg of Yabu Pushelberg and Yuichiro Hori of Stellar Works co-founded departo with a core mission. That mission, as stated in Canadian Interiors, is to make covetable, affordable essentials for today’s modern, mobile consumer without sacrificing quality. In the case of the folding chair, it seems the high-quality materials and design made affordability more challenging.
They chose ash wood for the folding chair’s legs and backrest, canvas for the seat, leather for the handle, all of which was built onto a steel structure. It can come in light or dark ash and is very easy to transport with dimensions of 48cm x 47.7CM x 74cm (width/depth/height).
Attention to detail and the use of high-quality materials make the design of the departo folding chair standout. The brand’s main mission to create possibilities through permanence, as is written in the company brochure, requires excellent craftsmanship. Although the price is rather steep for the average nomad, the co-founders place extreme importance on the desire to own a beautiful object rather than collect.
“When we were young designers struggling to get by, we would save our money up and spend all of it towards something beautiful and interesting,” shared George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg in the company brochure. “One of those purchases was Joe Colombo bar stools. After we bought them, ramen or our family’s homes were our dinner for the next 3 months because we didn’t have money to eat.”
The Joe Colombo Birillo bar stool for Zanotta dates back to 1971 and is now considered vintage. Some vintage shops will still sell the stools. We found a set of four recently on Selency selling for 6800€.
It would make sense for the average nomad to pay close attention to each item he or she buys and to spend a more appropriate amount of money on a good quality object that will stand the test of time rather than to constantly replace important items that break easily.
The departo folding chair reminds us that, at times or perhaps all the time, beauty does have a price tag; and perhaps it should.
