Known for holding the reproduction rights to numerous Eileen Gray designs, ClassiCon is exactly that: classical and contemporary. The boutique producer prides itself on preserving yet also ensuring the relevance of emblematic works from the past.
It also, slowly but surely, introduces new meticulously refined products positioned to also become distinctive icons with time. At this year’s Salone del Mobile.Milano, the Munich-based producer debuted the new Soft Stone Sofa by Porto-based, Singaporean designer Gabriel Tan — a new stacked-stone seating concept five years in the making.
Stone logic, fabric feel
The sofa’s form language draws directly from geological strata — layers of sedimentary rock compressed over millennia into something solid, immovable, and oddly beautiful. Tan translated this into upholstery that reads as stacked, with each cushion section separated by a thin reveal that catches shadow.
The result is a piece that feels both ancient and completely contemporary. In bouclé, it reads as architectural. In leather, it becomes almost brutalist. The proportions are generous without being overwhelming.
Five years, well spent
The development timeline is telling. Five years for a sofa sounds excessive until you sit in it. The depth of the seat, the angle of the back, the exact compression of the foam — these things don’t reveal themselves quickly. They require living with prototypes, questioning assumptions, starting again.
ClassiCon and Tan spent that time well. The Soft Stone Sofa arrives fully formed, with the kind of quiet confidence that comes from thorough conviction.