What will this Togo go for? Plus: Margiela store furniture... but better
Plus Observer 121, Chairish auctions, Deco for under $40 and more
Shabbat Shalom: Today’s Snake includes an participatory look into Togo pricing in 2025… a number of Margiela store (Antwerp 1990) furniture on the block, a flotilla of Deco coffee service items, as well dozens of selections of S-tier design and thoughts, context on these items.
Essay today in a bit; I beforehand direct you to this guest post I wrote for
at Schmatta newsletter:
It’s a refresher on to how to set up a LiveAuctioneers practice and get thoughtful furniture into your life (without this newsletter in fact). What’s that Oscar Wilde line, the only person who appreciates all types of art is a dealer? Anyways, that’s LA… it’s all on there.
Retail Observer: Smalls
I like auctions but believe in purchasing items retail as well. Doing so is another tool in the toolkit. It’s immediate. These are the best items I ran across this week, this time from Ssense.com:
Conran Shop Japan flag shot glasses—maybe not purposefully Jp flag, since they’re blurry, but cheeky and pretty captivating what with the deep red and rough edges. Another with identical design in blue on the site, the winner to me is this strong Wardour candle holder (think streaked marble).
Eames elephant in green—pictured, in the best color available for this little ragamuffin and a very accessible entryway into S-tier design—and a strong gift for a new homeowner. Reissued by Vitra in plastic, the original in plywood was too tough at the time to produce at scale.
Sori Yanagi butterfly stool (1954)—eternal minimal organic design; also in beige… the alternate Alto stool.
Who will be the first to show up to the
group workout (Sunday) in Anne Demeulemeester (near) zero-drop boxing shoes? Because they will receive one (1) full-fat Coke.
Obs 121
What will this Togo set go for? ($6,000, ends Sat., California) What will the other ones end at? The house, in Gardena, South Bay LA, has 10 on the block. The one above, a corner only piece, a single black seat (each $1,000), an identical corner set as the above for 5 large, an ragamuffin-sized ottoman for $800, and three three-seaters: citron with a corner piece, beige with a corner piece, pink normal and grey normal, with prices on those three between $800 to $3,500.
The Togo’s been written about enough lately—or roasted on podcasts, on IG captions and the like—but pricing is rarely addressed: the sofa has been all over the map lately. A three-seater ran under $1,000 just this year, and different sets (as in a pair of sofas) ran for 2 large and 7 large, respectively, from the same house. There's also a lot of volume: I count 37 auctions since the start of last year. The volume’s a response to the Togo’s popularity, the variance are pieces slipping through the cracks. This, to me, means there are both too many on the block (like these freaks and their 10), and that there are discerning consumers who don’t care about the “attention” and are after theirs. (Or decorators/businesses who have found a deal.)
Of the 10 here, the corner jumps out the most. It’s the least… Togo-y of the bunch but also the most arresting, and the most functional, since there are few similar seating options (vintage or new) with that shape. Its functionality and utility leaps it over how it looks. It’s also rare to find a corner in this sort of condition. On ecom, some Togos run into the five figures on 1stDibs, though some can be found for a few thousand (here are a few I have picked in the latter price range, including a couple of corners) and pricing on Pamono is similar, though that site features five Togos on the first page of their August flash sale. They’re trying to shed inventory!
And so while the sofa feels much less omnipresent than it was two years ago, much of this is a result of the design discussion growing. I do hope (for the Togo’s sake) that this… quiet will shake some of the trend off it, and reposition it to its rightful place as a competent, workmanlike (and wild-ass) sofa that blends into a room. Well, the corner ones, anyways, and ones with this upholstery. What do we think about how these 10 will shake out?
Results posted here next week. Observer continues…
Below the fold: with a hundred curated links to pieces of furniture and design—chairs, credenza, lighting, coffeware, sofas, more. There are NO affiliate links beyond here, just items I own or have bought or believe in or think are great, picked on merit. Paid subscriptions, which are appreciated, also allow this newsletter to continue.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to SNAKE to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.