BEAUTY AND THE SEAT LATEST DESIGNS PROVE CHAIR MAKERS AREN'T RESTING ON THEIR LAURELS.

Byline: Barbara De Witt Staff Writer

A striking silhouette.

Luscious curves.

And sexy legs.

Chairs have become the sex symbol of interior design and the box-office hit of the furniture industry.

``At the Pacific Design Center, all of the showrooms are showcasing accent chairs this year, and I've noticed there's more creativity and novel designs in this new contemporary market,'' says Michael Baker, director of design services at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

And with today's chairs, comfort is secondary.

``Striking, classically inspired chairs with attitude ... chairs that are visually appealing ... are what people want today,'' says Fred Poggemeyer, product developer and buyer for Bombay furniture stores. According to Poggemeyer, ``Shape is most important. Then, if it's attractive enough to get the buyer's attention, they'll sit in it. And if it's comfortable and also feels good to the touch with a supple leather, velvet or chenille, it sells.''

And chairs are the ``impulse item of the year,'' says Jackie Hirschhaut, spokeswoman for the American Furniture Manufacturers Association in High Point, N.C., which represents more than 350 U.S. furniture makers. According to Hirschhaut, ``The total furniture industry for 2001 is expected to be $26.3 billion, a 2 percent increase over the previous year ... and chairs are clearly a key ingredient.''

The best seller among chairs is the '30s smoking chair in leather with exposed wood feet and a matching ottoman - just like those seen in so many Old Hollywood films.

At Bombay, Poggemeyer says one of the most popular models is the Roma, a smoking chair with dramatic curves and tufted leather, which indicates it's handmade.

But the chair doesn't have to be covered in leather.

At Al's Discount Furniture in Woodland Hills, saleswoman Judy Stewart says she gets a lot of customers who are attracted to the leopard-print smoking chair that's displayed outside, as well as the zebra-print style in the front window next to a cherry-red sofa.

Animal prints remain steady, but the next big fabric trend, says the Pacific Design Center's Baker, is a renewed interest in toile scenes featuring images of early-19th-century Paris.

Other chairs making a fashionable seating arrangement include chaise longues (also known as fainting couches), side chairs with delicate cut-out designs in the wood or more decorative balloon backs, ornate Bergere armchairs, and novelty styles such as chairs shaped like a stiletto-heeled shoe that take the place of the feminine slipper chair of the '40s. Of the latter, Steward comments, ``Our shoe chairs are great conversation pieces, but they're usually bought for a teen-age daughter's bedroom.''

So, bentwood rockers are out, wing chairs are considered too formal, skirted chairs are passe, and club chairs are now de rigueur.

``Chair styles go in and out every 50 years,'' explains Jo Lauria, assistant curator of decorative arts at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, who adds, ``We've already seen the Victorian phase of the '60s and '70s (including Bentwood rockers) and the Italian Memphis movement of the '90s, and we're now moving from English and Shabby Chic into French furnishings again. In fact, today's smoking chair is actually modeled after the French club chair of the '20s and '30s.''

Lauria predicts we'll see more French design in stores, as it's also very Old Hollywood and blends well with the eclectic mood we've been in since the '60s - but she says there's also a move to modernist furniture.

``We're seeing a new interest in pared-down, almost ultramodern designs that parallel the Bauhaus design schools of Germany in the '20s (that focused on function) and also the later designs by Charles Eames with chrome, steel and leather, which are on the cutting edge again ... appealing to young moderns now as they did 50 years ago,'' she observes.

According to Baker, world-famous fashion designer Tom Ford was the catalyst for the recent revitalization of midcentury modernism. ``He bought a '50s house in Palm Springs and redesigned it with furnishings from that era, and now lots of boomers are buying older homes and furnishing them with Barcelona and Eames chairs,'' says Baker.

At local stores such as Bernards in Woodland Hills, there are plenty of streamlined chairs to choose from, influenced by Biediermier and the Swedish movement and the Bauhaus movement of Germany. Co-owner Garry Bernard says, ``Chrome trim is definitely in again, whether it's an all-chrome frame stack chair with a sled base and purple seat and back or a more exclusive design like our Can-Can chair that's a work of modern art inspired by the Bauhaus movement.''

Terry Rodenbeck, who works at the Pacific Design Center showroom where he represents the Krug company that makes the Can-Can, comments that the sleek accent chair was first seen in Germany at a furniture show in 1994 and later won the International Interior Design Association award.

``It's stunning to look at and relatively comfortable, and has become our second-best seller,'' Rodenbeck says of the blond wood chair that curves from the back of the chair to form arms and its back legs while tubular chrome legs curve forward to form a modified X-shape silhouette - a design that dates back to ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire.

For those who want to add a chair accent to their decor but worry it won't blend in with existing decor, read on.

According to Poggemeyer, if you've got solid chenille or tapestry-covered furniture, leather will mix well, especially if everything has exposed legs, which look swell on the new-again wooden floors and fresher than slipcovered styles.

He adds that if you purchase a large leather smoking chair, you want only one, unless you've got a huge room. If you're dying to have a pair of chairs to face a small sofa, look for small-scale chairs - such as decorative side chairs or small barrel-back club chairs.

Also consider introducing the smoking chair in brown leather to a roomful of Mission or Craftsman style furniture. It'll blend well with the heavy period furniture, advises Baker.

Although they're not a particularly hot ticket this year, Parsons chairs are transitional and will work with several decor tastes if upholstered in neutral fabric or the cutting-edge toile. Since Parsons chairs are narrow, they're space-savers and work well as an accent chair in a small room or at the dining room table, says Lauria.

The LACMA curator also cites the simple wooden Windsor, noted for the spindles on its back, as a chair with major staying power. She says it can be used in a light stain with Swedish modern furniture, and with Americana country looks when stained like oak or painted in a cherry enamel. Other keepers, she says, are the Boston rocker and the Hitchcock chair.

Have a bunch of Queen Anne furniture, the style noted for its curvy cabriole legs? ``Queen Anne is a formal look that doesn't mix well with a lot of other styles,'' says Lauria. ``However, it will complement the English cottage or Shabby Chic style that's still in vogue.''

Now, if you've been collecting antiques for years and you have no intention of getting rid of them, interior designers often suggest tying them together by using something in common, whether it's the period (such as art deco, English or Americana), type of wood (oak, teak or cherry), the style of leg (cabriole or chrome tube) or the upholstery fabric.

Chair-ish is the word

A chair is a chair is a chair. Yeah, right, except when you want one and you don't know what the style is called and you aren't good at drawing pictures.

To shop and talk with authority - so you don't end up with a Barcelona when you wanted a Bergere - we skimmed the pages of some of the best interior design books on the market, including ``The New Decorating Book'' (Better Homes and Gardens; $34.95), Joseph Aronson's ``The Encyclopedia of Furniture'' (Crown; $30) and Louise Ade Boger's ``The Complete Guide to Furniture Styles (Charles Scribner's Sons; $17.95).

For those who want a chair with style and aren't sure which one, check out our glossary of hip styles:

Barcelona: An armless leather chair with an X-shaped chrome base; designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1929 and modeled after the original X-chairs found in Egyptian tombs and used in ancient Roman times.

Barrel: This small upholstered side chair designed in 1765 has wood trim that curves around the back and down the front (like a piece of wood on a barrel).

Bauhaus: This is really a group of schools that taught function over all else that developed in the '20s in Germany. The result was streamlined chairs with chrome, wood and leather.

Bergere: An ornate armchair with upholstered back, seat and sides and an exposed wood frame and legs. It's part of the French furniture revival that's coming soon.

Boston rocker: An early American rocker noted for its natural-stained wood seat that curves upward with wide scrolled top rail and delicate spindles. It often has stenciled flowers on the seat and top rail.

Chaise longue: A long chair with a gracefully curved back, often referred to as a ``fainting couch.'' It was trendy in 18th-century France, a staple of Old Hollywood films, and back in demand with so many other styles of the '30s and '40s.

Eames: Contemporary-looking chairs created by American industrial architect-designer Charles Eames, who began in the '20s but was best-known for his 1945 design, a shock-mounted chair with two separate ``petals'' of molded plywood creating a back and seat on a steel tubing frame. He's very edgy again in design circles.

Hitchcock chair: A black painted chair created by an early American cabinetmaker named Hitchcock and noted for its stenciled design on the backrest and woven cane seat.

Metro recliner: If you hate most recliner chairs because they aren't elegant enough, look for this sleek model with black leather and curved wooden arms. It was first made in 1952 and is making a comeback.

Morgan: A deep, comfy leather chair also called a smoking chair back in the '30s, often with a matching ottoman.

Parsons: A narrow, armless chair that's upholstered and works well as a dining chair or accent chair.

Picasso: A sophisticated, contemporary club chair with smooth arms that sweep from floor to shoulder. It was a favorite of Hollywood movie moguls that's in again.

Slipper: An English Victorian style often seen in bedrooms. It's a small side chair with low legs designed so you could sit and easily bend over to buckle or lace up your shoes.

CAPTION(S):

9 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Stacking chairs with ultramodern lines are appealing to young moderns again. This design is by Keilhauer, courtesy of Bernards in Woodland Hills.

(2 -- color) Bergere: An ornate armchair with upholstered back, seat and sides and an exposed wood frame and legs. It's part of the French furniture revival that's coming soon. A fresh interpretation is this Montelambert leather chair from Bombay Co. stores.

(3 -- color) Bauhaus: This is really a group of schools that taught function over all else that developed in the '20s in Germany. The result was streamlined chairs with chrome, wood and leather. This teak and chrome design is by Krug, courtesy of Bernards in Woodland Hills.

(2 -- color) Metro recliner: If you hate most recliner chairs because they aren't elegant enough, look for this sleek model with black leather and curved wooden arms. It was first made in 1952 and is making a comeback. You'll find this new example with bentwood arms at Restoration Hardware stores.

(5 -- color) Windsor: A country-style 18th-century chair made in a variety of woods, noted for a bowed bentwood back frame with numerous vertical spindles and splayed wooden legs that fit into a slightly saddle-shaped wooden seat. This style is available at Al's Discount Furniture in Woodland Hills.

(6 -- color) This overstuffed smoking chair is one of the top styles of the season, say retailers and design experts. Based on the original French club chair, this zebra print upholstered design is available at Al's Discount Furniture in Woodland Hills.

(7 -- color) Toile, the print depicting life in rural France, is on the cutting edge again, shown above in a Parc de Vincennes cotton print fabric by Brunschwig & Fils.

(8 -- 9) Club chairs and ottomans, such as the pair from Restoration Hardware, far left, and the elegant Deco-inspired Fitzgerald chair from Bombay Co., left, reflect the newest trends in seating.

Box: Chair-ish is the word (see text)