“I have six of the S 64 in Graphite Ruby Red at home – and they are not arranged in a staged setting, but around my kitchen table. This is where we eat, discuss, play, work, argue and laugh. What fascinates me about the JS . THONET collection is precisely this: its calm and clarity, seamlessly integrating into the liveliest everyday life without ever imposing itself. The frame in glossy titan, the high-gloss finish, that deep ruby red – it has the quality of a profound tone: it is there, it carries, it calms – without ever becoming intrusive. A silence that is not empty, but full. As an actress, I am often occupied with the question of what gives something presence. Not effect, but a focus on the essential. That is exactly what I recognise in Jil Sander’s work – whether in fashion or in these chairs.” – Brigitte Hobmeier
This view of design is as personal as it is precise. Brigitte Hobmeier is not merely describing a piece of furniture, but an attitude: reduction as strength, restraint as an expression of confidence. The S 64 icon, reinterpreted by Jil Sander, embodies this very idea. Originally designed by Marcel Breuer, the cantilever chair is one of the classics of modern furniture design. In Sander’s interpretation, it is not reinvented, but refined – in its materiality, surface and colour.
This quality becomes particularly evident where furniture is truly used: in the home. At the table, that universal place of coming together, design is often reduced to its essence. Functionality alone is not enough; what is required is a sense of permanence that also resonates emotionally. The chairs Hobmeier describes are rooted precisely there – as quiet witnesses to a life being fully lived.
What is particularly compelling is how Hobmeier’s artistic perspective intersects with Jil Sander’s design ethos. Both share a search for expression beyond effect. In both acting and design, presence is not created through excess, but through concentration. Omission becomes a conscious creative decision – and a source of tension.
Thus, the S 64 P in the JS . THONET collection becomes more than a reinterpreted design classic. It becomes the embodiment of an attitude that proves itself in everyday life and reveals its true strength there. Or, as Hobmeier puts it: a silence that is not empty, but full.
And perhaps that is the greatest quality of this design: that it creates space – for conversations, for encounters, and for life itself.
