‘Hoop’ is a prototype of a stool with a padded seat and a round plywood frame. In spite of its good old warm and intimate craft quality, this stool is open to changes. Users can customize Hoop by covering the seat with a piece of their favourite fabric and tightening the circular frame like an embroidery hoop. Users can easily adapt Hoop to any style of room. This flexibility gives the stool long product life.

‘One of the starting points of designing Hoop was having seen lots of worn-out upholstered chairs discarded. Those chairs can be used much longer if it gets mended. But people tend to choose easier way although they know environmental impacts by their choice. So I wanted to find my solution to this issue’, says designer, Akiko Iba.

‘At the same time I was thinking about new possibility of textile use at home. Just a small piece of fabric can dramatically change the impression of an entire room, but the use of textile for interior design seems very limited. Curtains, cushion covers, rugs… that’s it. I was seeking the new and easy way to make use of the virtue of textile in everyday life. Mechanism of embroidery hoop connected these ideas and the result is Hoop stool’.

By applying the mechanism of embroidery hoop, fabric can be fixed tightly on the seat and removed easily by very simple actions. As users can easily change seat cover; the part which is most likely to wear down, the stool can be used for a long time. Changing fabric enables the stool to keep up with the change of trend, user’s taste or even their feeling of the day. This simple stool could be a long-term accommodating friend of yours.

About a designer
Akiko Iba graduated in BA Product Design at Central Saint Martins in 2007. She also learned textile printing, craft technique, and garment making in Tokyo and London. Textiles and yearns are her favourite materials. She’s especially interested in creating unique products and furniture using them. Akiko is currently working as a freelance designer.

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