Like Sweatpants, Squishy Furniture Is In

Versatility is not the only reason blobby sofas and chairs are back in style.

This article is part of our latest Design special report, which is about expanding the possibilities of your home. It’s the furniture equivalent of sweatpants. After a year in which many people hung up their office attire and evening wear in favor of all-day pajamas, a design trend that has been bubbling up for years became fully inflated: the embrace of bulbous, low-slung, super-squishy furniture that offers all-out comfort. Sofas and chairs that evoke plush 1970s lounges, like Cassina’s Soriana collection and B&B Italia’s Camaleonda modular sofa, are suddenly hot commodities. At the same time, contemporary designers are experimenting with oversize proportions and sink-in plushiness to a level that would have seemed profane to devoted modernists just a few years ago.