Meet Hussain Harba, The Iraqi Designer Recreating the Iconic ‘Joe Bloom’ Armchair by Poltronova
Back in 1970, “Joe” the iconic armchair, was first produced by Italian furniture and interior design house Paltronova, and was designed by three brilliant Italian designers: De Pas, D’Urbino, and Lamazzi. Its shape was inspired by the poetics of pop art and Paltronova’s admiration for the legendary American baseball star and Marlyn Monroe’s then-husband, Joe Di Maggio.
Recently, the Iraqi architect and fashion designer, Hussain Harba, realized after having been hopelessly seduced by Joe, the importance of experimentation and his desire of mixing the two cultures, East and West, his vision of both joining forces for the sole purpose of producing a true design icon. And this is exactly how ‘Joe Bloom’ came to life.
Hussain Harba told us “his encounter with Roberta Meloni, president of Centro Studi Poltronova led to “Bloom”, a tribute to Joe. An haute couture dress for a limited series of only 24 chairs, 4 units and each has six different colors.”
In other words, Harba worked exclusively on creating a new garment that doesn’t betray the chair’s originality. It’s basically a tailor-made suit in decorative leather that goes in tune with the evolution of tastes from the ’70s till today.
