Reupholstering old furniture is a trick of the trade right out of Decorating 101 for a good reason: In the right hands, a fabric update can be utterly transformative. “It’s almost like in the movie Avatar, when they plug in,” says Ray Azoulay, owner of Obsolete, a purveyor of famously chic antique and vintage furniture and contemporary art in Culver City, California. “These pieces just come to life.”
Since Azoulay founded Obsolete, in 2001, reupholstering antique and vintage frames — chairs, sofas, daybeds, ottomans — has evolved from a practical solution to “an initiative,” he says. “I’m not the one to discover the idea of reupholstering these things. But I don’t think it’s ever been done to this level by antique dealers.”
Azoulay scours European and British sources for old furniture — from 18th-century French sofas to 1970s Vladimir Kagan pieces — which he then pairs with textiles from high-end artisanal producers like Pierre Frey and Rosemary Hallgarten. It’s not surprising to learn that he came to antiques via the fashion industry, where he developed his deep understanding of different fabrics working in menswear.
We asked Azoulay to shed light on his passion for reupholstering, his preference for rich colors and patterns and his take on current textile trends.
What is the demand like for antique frames?
I was talking to a dealer in Parma, Italy, where there is a huge antiques fair — Mercanteinfiera — twice a year. He told me that an 18th-century chest of drawers would have cost 10,000 or 15,000 euros five years ago, but now they’re going for 5,000 euros, because the young people of Italy are not interested in antiques — they’re interested in the new. But I do think there is a movement of people coming back to pieces with extraordinary form from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
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