French designer Inga Sempé has created the Sofa Ruché for Ligne Roset
I was, at the outset, inspired by swing seats, the kind of rocking seats which one brings out in the garden in summertime, made from tubing and fabric, which possess a lightness I like very much. Like them, Ruché combines rigidity and flexibility, with airy looks and sparing use of materials.
Ruché’s structure is in solid beech, either stained or natural. I wanted to offer a version in natural beech: natural wood is beautiful, qualitative, authentic; it’s modern, and at the same time restful, for it is one of the rare natural elements which one can have in a living room. The angles of the feet are worked ‘en congé’, which both refines them and protects the grain of the wood from shocks.
Upon its slim legs rests a thick mattress with distinctive quilting, a kind of boutis stitch or padding made using a cross-hatching of interrupted seams. Alternately flattened by the stitches then set free, the fabric ‘curls’ in places, giving rise both to its unique appearance and to its name, Ruché (a gathered or pleated fabric which serves as decoration on a piece of clothing).
Slender and fine, Ruché is nonetheless soft and welcoming. Its internal structure, its filling materials and its quilting were brought together and developed with a view to offering great comfort. Since the height of its armrests is the same as that of its back, one can just as easily sit sideways and stretch out one’s legs: as a major refinement, the armrest is mounted on elastic webbing to enable the sitter to lean back in the greatest possible comfort.