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A Karakter way of living by Cult
From elegant chairs and alluring sofas to ambient lighting, Danish brand Karakter transforms living spaces into canvases for conversation and creativity.
Established in 2015, the Danish furniture and lifestyle brand Karakter embodies everything the world has come to expect from Danish design – timelessness, innovation, impeccable functionality – but with a twist: Karakter loves nothing more than pushing boundaries. The brand has fostered relationships with a star-studded roster of global designers whose work redefines norms. One such name is Tobia Scarpa.
The Italian designer, who turned 89 in January, and his late wife Afra created a stellar catalogue of chairs, sofas and lights which, says Karakter CEO Christian Elving, “are among the best of the mid-20th century”. The Danish brand has collaborated with Scarpa to re-edit the 121 dining chair and 925 lounge chair – designed in 1965 and 1966 – and the duo is now available in Australia, exclusively through Cult.
Both chairs feature a double trestle structure, rounded joints, robust wooden frame and anatomically shaped plywood seat and back, covered in premium European leather. The 121 – crafted by the couple from sketches by Scarpa’s father, renowned Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa – has an elegant arch-shaped cut-out at the base of the back. The 925 sits lower to the ground, with the same distinctive cut-out, here more elongated, set into the cantilevered backrest.
The Scarpas’ creations are just two of the original pieces in the Karakter portfolio, tailor made to imbue living spaces with a sense of refined elegance and invite relaxation and engagement. That ethos is beautifully encapsulated in Dutch designer Gijs Bakker’s GB lounge, a modular lounge chair simple and casual in concept but offering extreme comfort through its generous cushioning.
Bakker – originally a jewellery designer and later a co-founder of Droog – created the chair as part of a Dunlop design competition in 1972: he took a piece of foam, bent it 90 degrees and embedded it in a minimal metal structure reminiscent of the shape of his jewellery work. “It’s a simple design that leverages the effect of the chair’s bending and curves to achieve minimal interference with maximum expression,” Bakker said in a recent interview. Karakter has reconfigured the GB by adding small, discrete feet that raise it slightly off the ground for added comfort.
Other highlights of the Karakter collection at Cult include Aldo Bakker’s 2017 Console table and Angelo Mangiarotti’s Lari Mini lamp. The former is the wooden incarnation of a table first constructed in urushi lacquer: an understated, Japanese-influenced piece where the sturdy legs are an extension of the line made by the top. It comes in six exquisite colourways, including apricot, dark aubergine, midnight blue and dark sepia.
The Lari lamp – a mouth-blown piece of rippled glass atop a powder-coated metal base – was designed by Mangiarotti in 1978 and relaunched by Karakter in 2023 in a miniature, battery-powered version. “We wanted to make the lamp more versatile, and a battery-driven, rechargeable version seemed just right,” says Elving. “Given the smaller size and weight, we hope that many more will come to enjoy the beautiful ambient light of this iconic Mangiarotti piece.”
