Fritz Hansen has unveiled After, a new chair and table series by acclaimed designer Michael Anastassiades. Defined by geometric clarity, subtle gestures, and immaculate execution, the collection bridges the Danish brand’s 153-year heritage with a modern design language.
Named After, as a reference to the design approach, the series introduces a more modern design language to the Fritz Hansen collection, yet with a sense of continuity from its heritage lineage. The collaboration marks Anastassiades’ first with Fritz Hansen, though the London-based Cypriot's long-standing admiration for Danish design is central to the series. Drawing on the brand’s archives and ethos of collective contribution, he distilled traditional archetypes into his own pared-down expression.
The result is a chair that clearly bears Anastassiades’ signature while echoing the legacy of Danish masters such as Kaare Klint and Poul Kjærholm. The round dining table echoes the clarity and play on geometry in a sturdier form. Their honesty, purity and materiality, a testament to the technical prowess and craftsmanship of Fritz Hansen. “My approach is based around the idea of collective contribution, building on the Danish design heritage and bringing my own layer of simplification and thinking,” Anastassiades explains. “There is a lot of clarity in shapes and forms and why they need to be there, they are very considered and geometric, primal in a way.”
The After chair is conceived as a precise interplay of stacked elements: a curved backrest resting on square legs, which hold a gently scooped plywood seat. The joins are matched to the millimetre, an exactitude achieved through a traditional cabinetmaking technique used for the backrest, in which a piece of wood is sliced into sheets, glued back together in identical sequence and pressed into a curved shape. “The joinery has to be so good, so stable, and there needs to be a level of comfort,” Anastassiades says. “The curved backrest has to be so precise to the millimetre… All these details matter. They are really subtle gestures that make the chair.”
This sense of stacked layers and contrasting geometry is repeated in the After dining table. The round tabletop appears to float on cross-shaped legs, their chunky rounded edges aligning them to and distinguishing them from the chair. Two distinct finishes offer contrasting characters: Ash with a hard wax oil that highlights the natural elegance of the grain, and Burgundy lazur, a rich hue reminiscent of darker wood tones or the patina of aged brass that Anastassiades uses in his lighting designs. A burgundy version with a Rosso Levanto marble top pushes the series into another realm, contrasting the monumental materiality of the wine-red stone with the tactility of the wooden legs. Thin cushions, in nature or burgundy Pure leather, further refine comfort.
Anastassiades describes the process with Fritz Hansen — which involves workshops with the brand’s creative director and furniture makers to develop the final product — as slow, methodical and collaborative. “Their knowledge is so fundamental in the process. It is a very different approach than any of the other brands I have worked with,” he says. “A part of the aesthetic is how you work with the limitations of the wood and find innovative ways of solving the problem that are not going to compromise the design. I’m very happy with the result; the execution, the quality and the detail are very good. It is such a simple design but it is immaculately manufactured."
For Fritz Hansen’s Creative Director Els Van Hoorebeeck, the After series encapsulates the brand’s philosophy of design being an evolution, not revolution. “In ash you get Fritz Hansen the manufacturer – the details, the immaculate delivery, the comfort maximised for the chair without losing the aesthetic purity. Whereas the burgundy and marble table feels as if it has landed exactly where the brand is at from a design perspective.”
Van Hoorebeeck adds: “The After series emphasises where we come from, how we work with our heritage, and at the same time shows a preview of what is ahead. It is a really nice link between the past, present and the future.”
The After series launches worldwide on 4 September, 2025, and will be available in Australia and New Zealand through Cult.
Images courtesy of Fritz Hansen
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