Vladimir Kagan chair and ottoman for Fendi

The pioneers of modern furniture design in America in the mid-20th century all had their moments of flamboyance: Charles and Ray Eames produced the startling, biomorphic La Chaise; George Nelson’s firm created the Marshmallow sofa; Edward Wormley had his decadent Listen to Me chaise. But no designer of the day steadily offered works with more verve and dynamism than Vladimir Kagan. While others, it seems, designed with suburban households in mind, Kagan aimed to suit the tastes of young, sophisticated city-dwellers. With signature designs that feature sleekly curved frames and others that have dramatic out-thrust legs, Kagan made furniture sexy.

Kagan’s father was a Russian master cabinetmaker who took his family first to Germany (where Vladimir was born) and then to New York in 1938. After studying architecture at Columbia University, Kagan opened a design firm at age 22 and immediately made a splash with his long, low and sinuous Serpentine sofa. Furniture lines such as the Tri-symmetric group of glass-topped, three-legged tables and the vivacious Contours chairs soon followed.

Kagan’s choices of form and materials evolved through subsequent decades, embracing lucite, aluminum and burl-wood veneers. By the late 1960s, Kagan was designing austere, asymmetrical cabinets and his Omnibus group of modular sofas and chairs. For all his aesthetic élan, Kagan said that throughout his career, his touchstone was comfort. “A lot of modern furniture was not comfortable. And so comfort is: form follows function. The function was to make it comfortable,” he once commented. “I created what I called vessels for the human body.”

A diverse group of bodies have made themselves at home with Kagan designs. Among the famous names who commissioned and collected his designs are Marilyn Monroe, Gary Cooper, Andy Warhol, David Lynch, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and firms such as Gucci and Giorgio Armani. His work is in numerous museum collections, including those of the Victoria Albert and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Because of its idiosyncrasy, Kagan’s work did not lend itself to mass-production. Kagan never signed on with any of the major furniture-making corporations, and examples of his designs are relatively rare. As you will see from the offerings on 1stDibs, even decades after their conception, Kagan pieces still command the eye, with their freshness, energy, sensuality and wit.

The name Fendi may not immediately call to mind the furniture for which its home division, Fendi Casa, has become known — hand-knotted round wool rugs and marble coffee tables, for example — but it has established and maintained a lofty position in the furniture and interior design space over the years.

Longtime admirers of Fendi likely cite the fashion house’s iconic “baguette” bag or its pattern of interlocking F’s as pillars of its international reputation. The brand actually began with a different, singular focus, however: fur. In 1925, Adele and Edoardo Fendi opened a boutique in central Rome. (Adele had by then been running a leather-goods workshop.) The couple’s five daughters — Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda — eventually joined the business, each taking over an equal share as the brand expanded from leather and fur into ready-to-wear and accessories, most notably under the eye of Karl Lagerfeld, who took over as creative director in 1965.

It wasn’t until more than two decades later that Fendi would break into the furniture market: In 1988, Anna Fendi joined forces with Alberto Vignatelli to devise a home arm of the quickly growing brand. Vignatelli had founded Italian manufacturer Luxury Living Group in the 1960s, and Fendi became the first in a long line of collaborations for the company, whose specialty became bringing the aesthetics of luxury brands spanning fashion, automotive and more to the home. (Subsequent clients included Trussardi Casa, Bentley Casa, Heritage Collection, Paul Mathieu and Bugatti Home.)

With the new brand — dubbed simply and appropriately Fendi Casa — Anna and Vignatelli brought their shared passion for Italian craftsmanship to collections of furniture and home goods that exemplified the modern style and emphasis on materiality for which both Fendi and its home country were known. The line’s offerings range from sleek silhouettes with luxury detailing (think careful stitching on low-slung sofas or daybeds with leather stripes) to reinterpretations of Italian traditions in fresh finishes (like a chrome-detailed commode).

Today, Fendi Casa operates both residential and commercial branches, creating high-quality furnishings for everything from yachts to hotels with the same attention to materials and craftsmanship that have long informed both Fendi and Luxury Living. In addition to the brand’s current catalog of furniture and decor offerings, vintage 1970s and ’80s Fendi Casa pieces remain in high demand among resellers — proof of the house’s enduring style.

Browse a growing inventory of Fendi Casa furniture at 1stDibs.