Antonio Citterio’s 1997 design for B&B Italia is now well into its second decade of popularity, with a pair of successful updates—2003’s deeper Charles Large and 2010’s polypropylene Charles Outdoor—already on the books. “I try not to copy but to perceive and assimilate aspects specific to the work of great masters,” says Citterio of the Charles’s nod to the Eameses, but he notes that the similarities between his sofa and the couple’s mid-century designs “are more in spirit than in fact.”

Charles Sofa (1997) by Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia bebitalia.it Photo 5 of 5 in Dream Sofas by Luke Hopping

Dream Sofas

5 of 5

Antonio Citterio’s 1997 design for B&B Italia is now well into its second decade of popularity, with a pair of successful updates—2003’s deeper Charles Large and 2010’s polypropylene Charles Outdoor—already on the books. “I try not to copy but to perceive and assimilate aspects specific to the work of great masters,” says Citterio of the Charles’s nod to the Eameses, but he notes that the similarities between his sofa and the couple’s mid-century designs “are more in spirit than in fact.”

Charles Sofa (1997) by Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia bebitalia.it