14 Iconic Sofas You Should Probably Know About (2024)

If you spend your time on the same parts of the internet that we do, chances are that over the last few years you’ve seen a lot of weird and wonderful sofas that are, well, kind of hard to forget. (The most iconic sofas will live in your head rent-free.) Wondering the name of that couch that looks like a pack of dinner rolls? Or the story behind that Jabba the Hut–shaped lounge that’s fueling a whole world of furniture memes? Or maybe you’re trying to straighten out the connection between that cartoonish lips-shaped sofa and the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí? Worry not, we’ve got all the answers you’ve been seeking. Here are 14 iconic sofas you need to know to impress your Togo-obsessed friends—and where to buy them.

Barcelona Couch by Mies van der Rohe

In 1930, little-known American architect Philip Johnson asked cutting-edge German talent Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to design his New York City apartment. Mies was busy: He had just erected the Barcelona Pavilion, completed Villa Tugendhat, and been named the director of the Bauhaus. But he accepted what was more or less an interior decorating commission as an opportunity to employ some of his newly minted furniture designs Stateside. The project, it turned out, would render yet another Miesian icon, its given name as no-nonsense as its form: Couch. The sleek piece—a hand-tufted cowhide cushion and single cylindrical bolster laid on an African-mahogany platform with tubular steel legs—was wildly useful in the small apartment.

It was Johnson’s next place, however—the famous Glass House completed in 1949 in New Canaan, Connecticut—where the couch got the most publicity. Here, the piece’s low profile allowed a clear view out the windows to the sweeping vista beyond. Needless to say, it quickly rose to cult status. Expensive and difficult to make, the couches were manufactured in minuscule batches in Berlin until 1964, when Knoll took over production (a new one costs around $14,000). In fact, it was Knoll—not Mies—that awarded the sofa the name Barcelona in 1987, for its marked resemblance to the Barcelona chair and stool designed for an international exhibition in Spain in 1929.

Marshmallow Sofa by George Nelson

Does anything sound more simply delightful than a marshmallow sofa? The fantastical idea supposedly came to American industrial designer George Nelson in the 1950s, when a plastics manufacturer told him their company could punch out disks of the stuff that, when heated, would take on a slick, vinyl finish. In theory, they’d make a simple metal frame to which they would affix 18 “marshmallows.” It wasn’t so simple. Ultimately, the manufacturer couldn’t deliver and each cushion had to be upholstered one by one, making the sofa design far more complex than the original concept. Still, Herman Miller signed on to produce it in 1955. After nine years of slow sales they discontinued the piece which would later rise to pop icon status, reissued by Vitra and Herman Miller (from $5,285) 30 years later.

Togo Sofa by Michel Ducaroy, 1973

French designer Michel Ducaroy got the idea for today’s favorite cult sofa series one morning when he was brushing his teeth. His aluminum toothpaste tube, he said, “folded back on itself like a stovepipe and closed at both ends.” The simple observation inspired his most recognizable design—Togo, a cushy, crimped, ground-hugging sofa series that is produced and sold by Ligne Roset. Its fans include interior designer Kelly Wearstler, musician Lenny Kravitz, actor Colman Domingo, and fashion insider Clara Cornet, who says her faux leather upholstery is equal parts stylish and kid-friendly. You can get yours from $2,645 through Ligne Roset or, as of late, Design Within Reach.

Camaleonda Sofa by Mario Bellini, 1970

This one is often nicknamed the “Bellini Sofa,” after its Italian creator, Mario Bellini. However, it’s worth committing this piece’s proper name to memory (after all, Bellini designed other sofas). In an interview with AD last year, he revealed that to come up with Camaleonda he “Crossed two words: Camaleonte, or chameleon, an extraordinary animal capable of adapting to its environment, and onda, or wave.” The invented word captured the endlessly adaptable nature of the sofa system he designed for B&B Italia in 1970, in which bulbous modules of fabric-covered polyurethane hook together using simple, integrated carabiners to create endless configurations, from sectionals and armchairs to ottomans and daybeds. Production stopped in 1979, but as the couch steadily climbed to superstar status in recent years (vintage ones appeared in homes of Beastie Boy Mike D, Athena Calderone, and Chrissy Teigen) B&B Italia decided to put it back into production using only recycled or recyclable materials. These days it’s become a sort of poster child for the Blob Sofa trend.

Terrazza Sofa by Ubald Klug, 1973

When Swiss designer Ubald Klug designed a sofa called Terrazza in 1973 that was loosely inspired by a terraced landscape, The New Yorker called it “a monstrous thing.” Produced by de Sede, the modular sofa pieces were each composed of seven graduated leather-wrapped cushions set on a rectangular base, which—as Kelly Wearstler points out—can be expanded ad infinitum: “You can have a 50- or 60-foot-long sofa if you want.” She’s one of many contemporary designers who have embraced the monster. Others include Adam Charlap Hyman, Yves Behar, and, seemingly, Mick Jagger, who was famously photographed lounging atop a Terrazza. Get one from $12,170 through de Sede.

Wilkes Modular Sofa Group by Ray Wilkes, 1976

You know that sofa that looks like a few pieces of chewing gum? What is now dubbed by most “the Chiclet sofa” was designed in 1976 by Herman Miller’s in-house designer Ray Wilkes, as the Wilkes Modular Sofa Group. Wilkes used a new machine that injected foam into molds to create the rounded forms which could be upholstered in Herman Miller’s two-way-stretch fabric and used, in modular fashion, to create an armchair or a three-seat sofa. After the design experienced a recent resurgence, Herman Miller reintroduced the designs, from $2,295, updating them with a USB charging port and new upholstery options from Maharam.

Mah Jong Sofa by Hans Hopfer, 1971

It was exactly 50 years ago that Hans Hopfer created the Lounge Sofa for Roche Bobois, an endlessly modular seating system in which three simple cushion elements could be combined or stacked into endless compositions: An armchair, a sofa, a bed, even, and—should you fancy it—an entire living room. As a simple collection of rectangular units, the sofa soon earned the catchier “Mah Jong Sofa” nickname, a reference to the Chinese tile game. Over the years the design, which is still sold by Roche Bobois, has appeared in countless homes (we recently spotted one in Bretman Rock’s Open Door), and the cushions have been reupholstered in fabrics by Kenzo, Missoni Home, and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Florence Knoll Sofa, 1954

Florence Knoll often said that she designed furniture only when she “needed the piece of furniture for a job and it wasn’t there.” They were, “The fill-in pieces that no one else wants to do.” Such was the case with this 1954-designed sofa, which became an instant icon and hallmark of her oeuvre for its exposed steel frame and legs and super-tailored upright cushions, a bit of an homage to her mentor, Mies van der Rohe. Though it has been knocked off countless times, few even approach the perfect proportions and craftsmanship of the original. It is available from $9,723 at dwr.com

Soriana Sofa by Tobia and Afra Scarpa, 1969

Iconic designs often emerge out of a challenge. That was what happened when Tobia and Afra Scarpa received an urgent call from furniture maestro Cesare Cassina in November 1969: Could the Italian architect—son of a famous architect father, Carlo—and his wife come up with a radical new sofa in time for the Cologne trade show in January? The Scarpas came up with Soriana, a hunk of expanding polyurethane wrapped in leather and cinched in the middle with a shiny metal belt. “The leather covering was not supposed to be taut,” Scarpa later explained. “But to appear like a soft, creased fabric curled around this soft mass and held together by a sort of giant metal spring.” Production stopped in 1982, but since designers and tastemakers like Kelly Wearstler (she loves them all!) and Rodman Primack began clamoring for vintage models, Cassina decided to re-introduce the design earlier this year.

Serpentine Sofa by Vladimir Kagan, 1950s

Imagine designing your sofa around your art collection. That was precisely what led Vladimir Kagan to what is, perhaps, his most famous design: The Serpentine sofa. It was the 1950s and his clients were acquiring Abstract Expressionist paintings, revealing what the Manhattan furniture designer saw as a gap in the market: Sofas for viewing art. “We don’t all have to sit like birds on a telephone wire,” he said. To meet the need he created an undulating solution that sat on casters, making it easy to move. These days, a standard 11-footer is available via Holly Hunt, but most Kagan clients (much like the Manhattan glitterati that inspired the design) prefer to place custom orders.

Lips Sofa by Studio 65, 1970

Okay, this one is a little complicated. It starts with a 1935 watercolor by Salvador Dalí in which the surrealist artist portrayed the actress Mae West with a sofa for a mouth—a furnishing so provocative that British arts patron Edward James requested one. As Dalí worked on a few for James, across the channel, Paris decorator Jean-Michel Frank was making his own riff—a lips-shaped sofa for the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Several iterations of this idea were made in the 1930s, all with slight variations, and all served as inspiration, decades later in 1970, to Italian designer Franco Audrito of Studio 65 who had just been commissioned to design a fitness center in Milan. Working with Gufram, the foam furniture innovator du jour, Audrito realized the now-iconic cartoonish sofa called Marilyn (it now goes by Bocca), as an homage to both the crimson-mouthed starlet and the gym’s lipstick-loving owner, Marilyn Garosci. Still in production, Gufram now offers the perch in a range of colors, including one variation with a lip ring!

Cini Boeri Strips Sofa for Arflex, 1971

In 1968, Italian architect Cini Boeri began experimenting with simple molded-polyurethane forms that could be wrapped in removable quilts, almost like her children’s sleeping bags. The so-called Strips series, a name derived from that easy-to-undress design, was practical as ever: “The shell can be slipped off, washed, changed, put back on, and zipped up like a dress over a polyurethane body,” she wrote in 1974. The modular seats, sofas, and beds—which looked like building blocks wearing puffer coats—were officially unveiled in 1971 with Italian manufacturer Arflex (they still produce Strips today, from $8,150 for a sofa). Today, as the vogue for modular ’70s seating surges, design people across the globe have declared their allegiance. Starchitect Frank Gehry lives with several pieces in his Santa Monica home, and AD100 talent Charles de Lisle used a handful of green ones in his Sea Ranch Lodge redo in California. You can buy them new via Arflex, from $8,150, or hunt down a secondhand score from 1stDibs for a little less, if you’re lucky.

Pumpkin Sofa by Pierre Paulin for Ligne Roset, 1960s

In the late 1960s, as France endeavored to jump-start the nation’s suffering design industry, they had a clever idea: a buzzy redo of president Georges Pompidou’s Élysée Palace apartment by the young French talent Pierre Paulin. In Paulin’s out-of-this-world rooms, there were several showstoppers: sculptural sofas and chairs molded from strips of wood wrapped in foam and upholstered in leather. While the seats were surely ogled by visiting dignitaries, the series—known to most as Élysée—didn’t gain a cult following until the early 2000s, when it reemerged at New York gallery Demisch Danant. “People knew Paulin, but they didn’t know about the French production,” explains Suzanne Demisch. “They were hard to find, even then.” Fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquiere snapped up some of the first that came onto the market. While those rare originals—put into a brief production by French manufacturer Alpha that ended around 1973—are hard to find, New York gallery Ralph Pucci now offers reeditioned versions. Meanwhile, for a more affordable option, check out Paulin’s 2007 version called Pumpkin for French maker Ligne Roset, from $5,260

Jean Royère’s Polar Bear Sofa, 1947

If there’s one thing Kanye West has made clear, it’s his love of Jean Royère, particularly the French designer’s now famous Polar Bear sofa. (He told AD that he sold his Maybach to afford it.) The story behind this beloved lounge? In 1947, while redoing his mother’s Paris apartment, Royère installed a rotund sofa called Boule, covered in a deliciously fuzzy velvet that would later inspire the design’s charming nickname, Ours Polaire—“polar bear.” The unusual shape—created with a wood interior skeleton similar to those used in Louis XVI sofas—sent shock waves through Paris when Royère displayed it in Art et Industrie’s exhibition “La Résidence Française.” But soon enough, the orders flew in. Two chair versions were commissioned for the office of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs in Helsinki; the Shah of Iran snapped up several for the dining room and bar of his daughter Shahnaz’s home in Tehran.

French dealer Patrick Seguin, who, with Jacques Lacoste, has published two volumes on Royère, estimates there were only about 150 polar bear pieces ever made. Their rarity is reflected in their skyrocketing price tags: These days, a set—two chairs and the sofa—goes for around $1 million; the sofa alone can cost a cool $600,000. Still, since the early 2000s the designs have been steadily lumbering into the living rooms of everyone from Larry Gagosian to Ellen DeGeneres. Now, thanks to the newly established Maison Royère, the secondary market isn’t the only option. Vetted reeditions can be custom ordered.