Through shifting styles and restless trends, the Series 7 chair by Fritz Hansen remains a quiet classic with nothing to prove.

At 7.14am, on the northern edge of Copenhagen, the sky puts on a quiet spectacle: pink melting into blue, yellow flickering over green. From the coastline, the view towards Sweden becomes a soft gradient of change. It’s this shifting morning light reflecting off the sea that inspired the 70th anniversary Colour Edition of one of Denmark’s most enduring furniture designs.

The Series 7™, affectionately called the ‘Sevener’, is more than a chair. It’s an idea, held in timber and steel, about how design should behave in the world.

Designed in 1955 by Arne Jacobsen, the Sevener became an instant classic, not for what it expressed but for what it left unsaid. Its quiet confidence, shaped by a plywood shell and slender steel legs, challenged the ornamental excesses of its time. It stripped design back to the essentials of comfort, proportion and material honesty in an entirely new way.

“This is the only chair that wasn’t designed for a project,” Fritz Hansen Asia CEO Dario Reicherl says. “It was made simply for commercial use. And yet, 70 years on, we still have the original moulds, the same shape, the same character.”

Built to last, born to endure

In a testament to its enduring legacy, nothing in the Sevener’s form has changed. With today’s practice of ‘planned obsolescence’, where products are cheaply made for the moment with no intention of lasting, the Sevener shines as a beacon of hope that some things can stand the test of time. 

“The days of buying something for a five-year lease are gone. We’re seeing people think about the environment differently,” Reicherl says. “It’s no longer just about using good materials so you can justify tossing them. It’s about reusing and repurposing. In homes. In offices. In public places.”

The way the veneer is rotary cut, layered cross-grain and embedded with Indian cotton for flexibility and memory all remains as Jacobsen intended. “We’ve made over eight million of these chairs in the past 70 years,” Reicherl says. “But we still use the original formula. Every part of the process is intentional. Nothing is automated. Every shell is assembled by hand.”

That commitment to craft, even as the world rushed toward mass production, is what gave the Sevener its durability. Built with care and made to last, it is anchored in homes, cafés, offices and galleries across the globe. And now, on its seventieth anniversary, it feels as relevant as it ever has – maybe more.

A lesson in restraint, a masterclass in longevity

We are living through a shift. The design world has cycled through extremes from maximalism to minimalism, from mid-century revival to post-digital abstraction. But through it all, the Sevener has held its shape. “It doesn’t try to be the future or relive the past,” Reicherl says. “It just is.”

This kind of clarity in design is rare. In an age obsessed with the next big thing, the Series 7™ remains defiantly unchanged, a stalwart icon amongst a sea of excess. Yet, the Sevener is still produced in Denmark by Fritz Hansen, still taught in design schools, still relevant and cool.

Its appeal seems to lie in its restraint, every curve serving a purpose, every taper, join and dowel existing to support the human body. It invites touch. It holds weight. It belongs in the everyday. As Reicherl puts it, “It doesn’t shout, but it holds its ground.”

Its chameleonic ability to blend into its surroundings and simultaneously elevate them is what makes the Sevener timeless. Whether paired with stone and timber in a contemporary office or mixed with colour and texture in a domestic setting, its ability to adapt justifies its lifespan, not by changing, but by understanding.

Designers continue to learn from it, both in form and philosophy. “It teaches you to care,”  Reicherl says. “About how something meets the floor. About how a curve supports the body. About letting things be quiet.”

A legacy shaped by hand, not trend

In recent years, this idea of quiet design has gained urgency. As fast furniture clogs landfills and five-year fitouts lose their shine, the demand for longevity has returned. Designers and specifiers are making different choices, for both sustainability and meaning. A recent government project in Sydney, for example, specified Series 7™ chairs at $1800 apiece. Far from an extravagance, the purchase was viewed as an investment. “When a chair is part of an architectural vision,” Reicherl explains, “you consider everything – the space, the branding, the uniforms, the materials, even the cutlery.”

The lasting integrity of the Series 7™ chair is part of what has kept it in production for 70 years, without gimmicks or reinvention. “It’s not fragile or frozen. It’s a working artefact,” Reicher says. “One that continues to be lived with, not just looked at.”

In 2025, Cult Design marks the milestone with a renewed celebration of the chair’s origins and impact. Alongside the classic models, the chair is available in a new curated palette of colours, developed with Italian designer Paola Navone, offering fresh expression while staying true to its essence.

More than a novelty, the anniversary is about recognising the quiet revolution, rooted in simplicity and thoughtful materiality, that the Series 7™ sparked and continues to inspire. 

As the sun breaks over the edge of Copenhagen and light bends across the sea, the chair still sits in repose, knowing that while trends come and go, it will forever be part of the story.

Images provided by Fritz Hansen