*notcot in home+decor , 17:08

Zanotta: Happy 40th Sacco 1968-2008- 11.24.08

zanotta1.jpgOn italian design icons, the Sacco is legendary, it’s impacted every college kid since 1968… it’s the original beanbag as designed in 1968 by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro for Zanotta… it is the first mass-produced bean bag chair, filled with polystyrene pellets… Can you believe it? 40 years? To celebrate, Zanotta invited us to breakfast at DZINE in San Francisco, and unfortunately i wasn’t able to make it up there, but Marcia Simmons was nice enough to step in and help out! Highlights were meeting Martino Zanotta, the current head of the company, having access to the ORIGINAL DESIGN SKETCHES of this legendary piece, and the picture she sent me of her cat, Olive, who has happily claimed her mini Sacco… See more images and her comments on the next page!


This year is the 40th anniversary of Sacco ~ the first beanbag chair. Zanotta is the iconic Italian furniture company that introduced the beanbag chair to the world. I met the head of the company, Martino Zanotta, at a Sacco anniversary party at DZINE furniture gallery in San Francisco and he shared some design sketches with me of the original Sacco, designed by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro.

“Proposing something with no shape to it in 1968 was crazy,” he said. But his father started the company to show “it was possible to make a profit and make culture at the same time.”

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Martino Zanotta said the Sacco is his all-time favorite piece. But he said that the Kilt is his favorite sofa because the design is timeless. He decided to lounge on it to show me how comfortable it was.
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So, happy birthday Sacco! I can’t imagine the last 40 years without your inspiration ~

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