Costes Dining Chairs in Black Leather, Moulded Wood & Metal by Philippe Starck for Aleph Driade, 1980s, Set of 4

Model · Costes
Designer · Philippe Starck
Manufacturer · Aleph Driade
Origin · Italy
Period · 1980s
Style · Postmodern / Modernist
Materials · Moulded wood, painted metal, leather
Colour · Black

Object

Costes has three legs. Not as a visual trick, but because Philippe Starck decided that a chair in a crowded restaurant simply did not need four. Fewer legs meant fewer collisions between chairs, waiters and people moving through the room. A practical problem became the defining gesture of the object.

Designed in 1984 for Café Costes in Paris, the chair wrapped a curved wooden shell around a small leather seat and balanced the whole composition on a slender metal structure. Everything feels controlled, but there is something slightly strange about it too. That tension belongs completely to Starck's 1980s world, where elegance could be intelligent, theatrical and a little provocative at the same time. In entirely black finishes, this set of four reduces Costes to shadow, curve and silhouette.

Designer

Philippe Starck (1949) emerged from Paris in the late 1970s and early 1980s with little interest in keeping design within polite boundaries. Interiors, furniture, hotels, restaurants and everyday objects all became part of the same project: changing the atmosphere of ordinary life.

His furniture from this period often begins with something recognisable and then quietly disrupts it. Costes is a perfect example. It is still unmistakably a dining chair, yet one leg has disappeared, the back becomes an enclosing architectural surface and the conventional distinction between structure, shell and upholstery begins to blur. The result feels less like decoration than a carefully constructed character.

Manufacturer

Driade was founded in Italy in 1968 by Enrico Astori, Antonia Astori and Adelaide Acerbi around the idea that industrial furniture could remain experimental. Rather than developing a single recognisable house style, the company became a platform for designers with radically different ways of seeing the domestic world.

Philippe Starck entered that world during the 1980s and became one of its defining voices. Through Driade and its Aleph collection came pieces including Costes, helping turn the company into an important meeting point between Italian manufacturing and the increasingly international design culture of the decade.

Condition

The curved wooden shells have been restored and retain their deep matt black finish. The painted metal structures and black leather cushions remain in good vintage condition, showing only subtle traces of previous use. The chairs retain their original manufacturer labels and are structurally sound, preserving the character of authentic 1980s examples.

Dimensions

Width · 47 cm / 18.5 in
Depth · 54 cm / 21.3 in
Height · 80 cm / 31.5 in
Seat height · 47 cm / 18.5 in

Included

The dining chairs are accompanied by a Back to the Furniture Certificate of Originality, a Back to the Furniture flyer, a Thank You card and a small gift.

Availability

The dining chairs can be ready to ship within 10-15 workdays.

Shipping

Worldwide shipping is available. Every piece is carefully prepared and packed for international transport. Shipping costs are calculated according to destination at checkout, with tracking provided after dispatch.

Enquiries

For questions about the piece, its condition, shipping, delivery or any other details, please get in touch. Additional information is always available before purchase.

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