The Series 7 is Arne Jacobsen's 1955 chair, a steam-bent plywood shell on a tubular steel base that became the best-selling chair in Fritz Hansen's history and one of the most copied silhouettes in furniture. For 2026, the centenary of Verner Panton's birth, Fritz Hansen has reissued it as the Series 7 Verner Panton 100, in four warm tones drawn from the palette Panton created for the chair in the early 1970s: yellow, orange, red and brown. It made the cut because this is a meeting of two designers rather than a colour refresh. Panton worked in Jacobsen's orbit and brought a psychological view of colour, saturated and deliberate, to a form that is usually sold in pale veneers and safe neutrals. Restoring his hues returns an energy the chair was designed to carry, and the sculptural shell reads differently in orange or red than it ever does in oak. The underlying chair is unchanged, which is the point: proven construction, stackable, light, and made to the same pattern that has been in continuous production for seventy years. Fritz Hansen states the edition is available throughout 2026, after which the colours leave the range. Buyers should confirm price and lead time with an authorised dealer, as the official page lists no price. Verdict: The rare anniversary reissue that improves on the standard version, with a hard end date that is genuinely hard.
