Marfa Stance, the London-based outerwear brand known for its modular, utilitarian approach to design using repurposed and surplus materials, has entered the furniture world with Stephen Kenn Studio. They have teamed for a collection of custom, made-to-order furniture.
The collaboration marks a new chapter for Marfa Stance as it moves beyond clothing into the home, working with Stephen Kenn to translate principles that have defined its collections — longevity, adaptability, utility and material consciousness — into furniture.
Stephen Kenn Studio has built its practice around furniture that embraces the history, irregularity and character of reclaimed materials. That approach has an affinity with Marfa Stance, whose collections are constructed through a mix of new, surplus, deadstock and reclaimed textiles.
Stephen Kenn Studio x Marfa Stance chair.
Kevin Pak, courtesy shot.
The collaboration also extends to Marfa Stance’s longstanding creative community that includes its friends at Gee’s Bend, whose quilting tradition and work with surplus and reclaimed materials embodies the same belief in resourcefulness and craft.
“Working with Stephen, who’s been a friend of the brand for many years, felt natural. He supplied the furniture for our first New York City flagship a few years ago, and expanding Marfa Stance into the furniture category was a logical next step,” said Georgia Dant, founder of Marfa Stance.
Stephen Kenn
Courtesy image
“We’ve never believed design should live within one category. The way we think about a piece of outerwear — how it’s made, what happens to the materials, how long it can live, how it can change with its owner — is actually very close to how Stephen approaches furniture. We share a belief in utility, longevity and marking something beautiful from what’s already around us. This collaboration lets us take that philosophy somewhere completely new,” she said.
The launch will see each Marfa Stance store receive its own unique chair, creating a series of individual pieces that introduce customers to the collaboration. Following the initial store installation, the furniture will be available to customers online as a made-to-order offering, allowing each piece to be produced individually, rather than manufactured speculatively. Prices will be available upon request.
For Stephen Kenn, the project represents a meeting of two practices that have long shared a common language.
Stephen Kenn
Courtesy shot
“When I first saw a Marfa Stance jacket, I was transported back to some of my earliest days studying vintage military clothing,” Kenn said. “The careful consideration and thoughtful details evoked an admiration and immediate kinship. I couldn’t help but wonder…if this jacket were a reversible slip cover, what would it look like? This journey is allowing me to explore new materials and compositions while adhering to my core value that good design should embody the simplest, most functional form while using materials that’ll wear well into the future. These pieces that we are creating together will certainly be heirloom quality worthy of repair.”
The furniture story will sit within the wider Marfa Stance universe, rather than exist as a separate category. Kenn will serve as the muse for the brand’s new menswear launch later this year, within their “In Conversation With” film series, helping to connect the physicality and utility of the furniture with the clothing and the people who wear it.
Dant founded Marfa Stance in 2019 to address what she saw as a gap in the womenswear market for functional, yet design-led clothing, following her career in menswear at Burberry and Rag & Bone. The brand offers quilted, reversible base layers made from sustainable, recycled or surplus material. Customers can then add detachable collars, hoods, linings and vests, all of which are made from leftover luxury fabrics, mainly sourced from factories in Italy.
Although the brand is based in the U.K., most of the business is in the U.S. The company has launched successful pop-ups on East 67th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan, and in TriBeCa. The company opened its first Midwest location at Plaza del Lago in Wilmette, Ill., last month and now has a permanent store on Madison Avenue. Marfa Stance also operates a store on Ledbury Road in Notting Hill, London, (a long-term pop-up) and sells direct-to-consumer and through select retailers worldwide.
In May, Marfa Stance hired Jenna Littler as its first chief executive officer. Littler has most recently been advising founder-led businesses in luxury retail, hospitality and beauty on brand and commercial strategy. Prior to that she spent 11 years at Burberry when Angela Ahrendts was CEO.
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