Danish furniture brand Brdr Krüger has partnered with designer Rasmus Bækkel Fex to create a Shaker-influenced chair with a woven seat.
Designed as a contemporary take on tradition, the F chair features ultra-minimal details that are true to the typical Shaker style. However, Fex also incorporated a geometrically patterned seat that combines his own "fascination" with transport straps and the weaving often found on older chairs.
"In Denmark we use yarn for the woven seats and if you look at Shaker chairs they used ribbon," he told Dezeen. "So the woven seat of the F chair is a merging between two traditions."
The chair is available in black stained beech and oiled oak versions, and dates back to an exhibition Fex was part of in 2013 – where he showed a simple, traditional Shaker chair alongside other designers' more experimental pieces.
"The F chair is a celebration of old crafts," said Fex, who studied furniture design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Design. "It is born from innumerable prototypes and hands-on work at Brdr Krüger's workshop, where we fine-tuned the simple construction to gain the right expression and feel."
The designer worked closely with Brdr Krüger to keep the chair minimal while also ensuring it was as comfortable as possible.
"I think design from the Shaker tradition continues to appeal to us because of its enduring values of necessity, honesty and quality," said the Danish brand's creative director Jonas Krüger – part of the fifth generation running the company, which was founded in 1886 as a woodturning workshop.
Fex added: "It is a design made for the people by the people, to be well used and to last longer. It is also beautiful. You can feel the craftsmanship in the chair and in the hand weaving of the textile seating."
The Shaker sect – of which there are now just two remaining members – began life in the 19th century as a small religion, numbering just 6,000 at its peak during pre-Civil War America. The group has drawn attention as much for its vows of celibacy as its stripped-back furniture design, which values craft and clean lines.
Their austere style has undergone a revival in recent years, borrowed by designers including Jin Kuramoto, Pinch, Neri&Hu and Torsten Sherwood.
Studio Gorm's Wonhee Arndt, who created an exhibition of Shaker-influenced design during Stockholm Furniture Fair, has called the sect "the first minimalists".
"They are this unusual religious group who had very unique and sometimes strange practices, but those things translated into this really interesting material culture," added John Arndt, also of Studio Gorm.