American Leather is comfortable with contradictions. Start with its name: Although the company was founded 36 years ago on made-in-the-USA leather furnishings, 70 percent of its portfolio today consists of fabric-upholstered pieces. Then there’s the product itself: While recliners have a reputation for being overstuffed behemoths that stake out the territory immediately opposite the wide-screen—a niche that American Leather can certainly fill—many of its sleek, aesthetically specific pieces completely conceal their versatility. File under the heading “I Can’t Believe It’s Motion Furniture.”
“Comfort doesn’t require compromise,” says Lance Trachier, creative director at the Dallas-based brand. “It doesn’t have to be ugly. That’s one of our core tenets. Furniture can be sharp, clean and tailored and still incredibly indulgent and functional.” Beyond obliterating that old, clichéd binary—the wife gives up her dream of a sophisticated family room because the husband wants to kick back and watch the game—American Leather’s broad selection offers distinctive styles, including low-profile Italianate sofas and wood-framed midcentury lounge chairs. The diversity is in response to the ongoing cultural shift centering both work and entertainment in the home, where ease and convenience reign supreme. Encompassing everything from basic manually operated recliners to cordless battery-powered love seats with the capacity to raise your feet above your head, motion furniture is among the fastest-growing categories in the market. With three and a half decades of experience informing its direction, American Leather is dedicated to providing choices in silhouettes, coverings and kinesthetic experiences. “Whatever look, comfort level and range of motion you want, we have a solution,” says Trachier. “This is not your grandfather’s recliner.”
LEATHER, MOHAIR AND MORE
True to its origins, American Leather continues to craft pieces in an array of best-in-class leathers, catering to various tastes. “Some customers love the material in its more natural form, cherishing every scratch and splotch as it patinates over time,” says Trachier. “Others prefer a coated finish that better preserves the brand-new look.” To combine the benefits of both approaches, the brand just launched Umbria, a hybrid available in eight hues. “It still shows a lot of character, but it’s protected by a semiopaque covering that ensures more surface consistency as it ages,” he explains. The material serves as another example of the company’s commitment to minimizing compromise. “We constantly search for ways to say, ‘It’s not either this or that, patina or protection. There’s something in the middle that can meet all your needs.’” On the fabric front, American Leather stocks more than 630 of its own coverings, including popular textures like boucle, chenille, velvet, and its new performance mohair, Hearth. As part of its customization options, it accommodates COM and COL as well.
Supple leather, nubby boucle, brushed mohair: They’re all set in motion by a couple of buttons—usually concealed in the armrest and accompanied by USB ports to charge cell phones—that activate the electronics hidden within the frame. For an extra dose of discretion, controls can be tucked between cushions on some models. All are compatible with rechargeable batteries that allow them to be freestanding within a room, no cable required. Though as the stigma associated with old-school recliners has eroded (the company has noticed a part-ironic, part-nostalgic trend toward embracing retro silhouettes), some customers want the cord. “They position the piece up against a wall near an outlet, where it’s barely noticeable,” says Trachier. “But if they change their mind six months later, they can order a battery from us and slot it in, super simple. It’s just a question of preference.” However they choose to power their experience, it will be a quiet one—no squeaks or grinding gears as the seat slides out, the footrest flips up, or the back dips down.
REIMAGINED MOTION
Among American Leather’s many lines, Trachier spotlights the Re-Invented Recliner collection for the design community: “It’s built on the promise that you can have a luxury-looking chair, from any reference period, that’s deeply comfortable and imbued with motion,” he says. “It shatters the cumbersome-recliner stereotype and represents how we’ve completely reimagined the category.” Special mentions go to the midcentury Aston lounger framed in walnut or ash—“It looks like a vintage Danish piece,” he says—and the sleek, cantilevered Isla, suspended on a square steel base.
Inspired by classic car interiors, the eight styles in the Design Your Recline collection are all available across several different motion options, including Comfort Air, which sits on a disc- or star-shaped swivel base and pairs with a matching ottoman; Comfort Echo, a gliding rocker with a footrest that can be manually or electronically operated; and Comfort Solace, the deepest, most restorative system in American Leather’s portfolio. The furniture equivalent of inversion therapy, it creates a zero gravity effect, in which the feet are raised higher than the heart. Rounding out the program, the L-Series offers a classic to-the-floor look. “Choose your style, choose your mechanism,” says Trachier of the mix-and-match method.
The Comfort Theatre models, he notes, are the brand’s “Steady Eddie” for the growing number of customers with home-screening rooms. Along with articulating headrests and multiple reclining positions, they come equipped with LED-lit, stainless steel cup holders to secure drinks during movie marathons. The chic, low-profile Lumen series, already plenty plush in its static state, provides a high-back seating experience through pop-up cushions. “From an ergonomic standpoint, we just inherently enjoy the feeling of higher back support,” he explains. With a 35-inch-wide seat, optional lumbar articulation, and more overt, central control panels, the Keystone design from the M-Series is aptly oversized for huge suburban houses—whether in Texas, California or New Jersey. American Leather’s central location makes shipping anywhere in the country easy, and because the company constructs all its furniture stateside in a vertically integrated process, it can craft a custom piece in about three weeks.
COMFORT, CUSTOMIZED
Most styles are available in standard, large and extra-large recliner iterations, as well as love seats and sofas, which can also be assembled as sectionals. “We can building-block-out any configuration you want,” notes Trachier. “It’s an amazing modular way of designing.” Other bespoke touches include trim, contrast topstitching, an assortment of wood and metal finishes, and several fill variations for softer, firmer, memory-foam or down-alternative seating. “Customization is operationalized into almost every one of our collections,” he says. “If it’s not, we’ll do it à la carte.” Separate from its many motion possibilities, American Leather also offers styles like the Versa, which has pop-up arms, and the Dorian, a design that extends its back manually via slide-up pillows. “It doesn’t always have to be the bells and whistles of battery packs, motorized engines and plugs,” he adds. “Sometimes a simple trick that lets you choose your own comfort position makes all the difference.”
Customers may approach a renovation knowing that they want a particular type of lounge chair, in a certain weave or color of leather, for their living room, den, home office or bedroom. Considering the many choices available from American Leather, designers can satisfy all their client’s whims and introduce the added value of comfort and mobility. Or perhaps you’re trying to convince your client to adopt a specific aesthetic. “You may have presented a beautiful living room mock-up with midcentury modern chairs, only to have your client counter with: ‘But I want a recliner to watch TV,’” says Trachier. “American Leather gives you both in spades: That’s our secret sauce.”
This story is a paid promotion and was created in partnership with American Leather.
Homepage image: Part of the Design Your Recline collection, the Cirrus lounge chair features plush channeled seating that swivels on a four-star base | Courtesy of American Leather
