Poltronova was founded by Sergio Cammilli in 1957 in Agliana, in the province of Pistoia. The meeting with Ettore Sottsass, active in Tuscany as artistic director of Bitossi ceramics, dates back to the following year. Sottsass took care of defining the aesthetics of the new brand in a post-modernist sense, also involving numerous young and revolutionary designers who gravitated in his orbit in the project. It was at the end of the 60s that these creative ferments definitely exploded, giving life to products destined to enter the history of design such as the Ultrafragola mirror by Sottsass himself, the Mies armchair by Archizoom Associati or the Joe armchair by the De Pas studio, D’ Urbino, Lomazzi.

In the 1970s Poltronova also became a protagonist of the Milanese scene through the Design Center gallery, founded by Cammilli himself in the city centre. The brand will continue to remain active and lively even in the 80s, a decade in which it dedicated itself above all to the production of furniture by great post-modernist architects such as Hans Hollein and Paolo Portoghesi, and in the 90s, when it will accompany the beginnings of a new generation of designers like Ron Arad and Nigel Coates. Cammilli’s progressive detachment will lead Poltronova towards years of decline, culminating in the company’s bankruptcy.

The historical memory of the brand was kept alive by the activity of Roberta Meloni, founder of the Centro Studi Poltronova. Through a high-profile cultural activity and careful cataloging of the archive, the Poltronova Study Center has managed to keep a precious legacy intact, in a process that lasted several years and culminated with a relaunch of the Poltronova brand on international markets. Today Poltronova, not forgetting its essential cultural legacy, has also discovered itself as a “fashionable” brand par excellence, peeking out in the shots of supermodels such as Bella Hadid or great actresses such as Lena Dunham.