“Chairs are uniquely the best expression of design. They encompass more of the challenges by which I live and work than any other single component of furniture.” – Vladimir Kagan

High School drawings and sculpture, as well as early photographs of Kagan in theatrical productions and at the beach with friends are included in his entertaining autobiography.

The Serpentine sofa — now a classic —originally photographed in this living room for a client in Forest Hills, New York, was featured on the cover of the 1950 Kagan-Dreyfuss catalog.

Kagan was prolific with ideas for buffets, cabinets, and sideboards, as is evidenced by these pen-and-ink sketches from the 1950s. The two halves of a cherry chest-on-chest for Grosfeld House could be separated or stacked into a single unit.

Sweeping strokes, capturing the essence of the Floating Seat and Back sofa in a sketch from 1952, were faithfully applied to the finished product.

After a fire in 1972 destroyed Kagan’s East End Avenue workshop in Manhattan, the company moved across the East River to Long Island City, in Queens, New York. Kagan is seen here in the new factory’s cabinetry shop.

In the nineties, Gucci creative director Tom Ford and interior designer William Sofield selected Omnibus seating for all the Gucci boutiques worldwide. Shown here are examples installed in the fashion label’s New York City flagship store.

A sketch reveals Kagan’s plan for what must be one of the largest sofa groupings ever built. Produced in 2002 for the lobby of Los Angeles’ trendy Standard Hotel Downtown, the thirty Omnibus seating components created an architectural labyrinth that required two 40-foot container trucks to deliver.

In 2003, Kagan created custom seating for the apartment of an important contemporary art collector in a New York high rise.

Kagan seating is deployed under Blossom, a crystal chandelier by Tord Boontje for Swarovski, that hangs in a corner, adding to the magical, glittering scene of New York at night.

“Inspiration sometimes comes from a client’s expressed desires or from things I see around me: other times I wake up in the morning with an idea burning in my mind.” – Vladimir Kagan