max lamb hand-cuts chairs at bottega veneta’s winter show

Max lambs designs chairs for bottega veneta

Bottega Veneta taps British designer Max Lamb for the chairs that sit the audience during its Winter 2026 show in Milan. Made from expanded polystyrene, which is the material typically used to produce disposable food containers, the designer made the 421 chairs for the show, arranged in uniform rows inside Palazzo San Fedele, where the set took place. Complementing his work is the Woven Shirt painting of artist Poppy Jones, which Louise Trotter, the creative director of Bottega Veneta, used in the invitation for the Winter 2026 show.

The seats’ cream-like shade stands out against the red velvet carpet on the floor, and each of the chairs’ surfaces shows uneven skins, hinting at the individual hand-cutting process of the designer and his team. Each chair made by Max Lamb for the Bottega Veneta show starts from four-inch-thick slabs of expanded polystyrene. The designer prepares a cutting plan before production, which divides each slab into measured parts to reduce waste. The chair consists of separate components for the seat, back, and legs, and in total, the production of 421 chairs requires thousands of individual pieces. Every leg and support comes from the same foam material, too.

all images courtesy of Bottega Veneta

hot wire tools cut the polystyrene

The making process of Max Lamb’s chairs at Bottega Veneta Winter 2026 show follows clear steps: cutting, gluing, assembling, and spraying. The designer uses hot wire tools to cut the polystyrene, and for this project, which refers to his previous work Economy Chair (01) for the gallery Salon 94 Design, he develops hot wire cutters for the required shapes. The cuts define the geometry of the chair, and straight lines and flat planes shape the final form.

After assembly, each chair receives a coating of unpigmented polyurethane rubber, used directly from the tin. This layer seals the foam surface and creates a continuous skin around the chair, and it results in a seat with a foam interior and a rubber exterior. All chairs are hand-cut and hand-finished, too. The material choice links to Max Lamb’s long-term research on expanded polystyrene for 15 years, showing up in his Poly and Scrap Poly series. He tests methods of cutting, carving, peeling, spraying, and upcycling both new and scrap foam, and with these 421 chairs for Bottega Veneta’s Winter 2026 show, Max Lamb scales his own practice, still using the techniques he’s known for.

the seats are arranged in uniformed rows during the show