Norwegian brand Stokke has released a MoMA Edition of the Tripp Trapp, the children’s chair that designer Peter Opsvik created in 1972. The limited version uses the New York museum’s signature colours, with seats and footrests in red, pink, orange and blue that can be mixed and matched.
The edition also adds reversible seat and footplates, and the Stokke and MoMA logos sit next to Opsvik’s signature. Otherwise the chair keeps the form that has changed very little since its launch: an angled profile with adjustable slots that let parents raise or lower the seat and footrest as a child grows. A safety bar is available for smaller children.
The chair’s success began on television. Opsvik demonstrated it on a programme in 1973, and viewers jammed the station’s switchboard asking where they could buy one. Within ten years, Stokke was selling more Tripp Trapp chairs each year than there were babies born in Norway, and the design then spread to other countries. MoMA included it in its 2012 exhibition Century of the Child: Growing by Design 1900-2000, and the museum approached Stokke last year about a special version.
Those involved say the edition is a sign of how long a well-made design can last. Jesse Goldstine, MoMA’s chief retail officer, said “good design is for everyday living”. Martha Jørgenvåg, Stokke’s vice president of innovation, said innovation is not always measured by how much a product changes. Tor Opsvik, the designer’s son and managing director of Peter Opsvik AS, noted that timeless designs often sit outside the trends of their day, which helps explain why the chair has needed so few updates.
Stokke was founded in Ålesund, Norway, in 1932, and today makes prams, foldable baths, baby bouncers and toys alongside the Tripp Trapp. The MoMA Edition is sold through the MoMA Design Store online and through Stokke’s own website, and it is also being promoted on the museum store’s social media channels. Wallpaper did not list a price or a release date for the chair, and Stokke has not said how many will be produced. For buyers, the appeal is a chair that can stay in use from early childhood onwards, now in a set of colours chosen by one of the world’s best-known design museums, and with parts that can be swapped to change its look.
