How Togo Became the Coolest Sofa Once Again

Michel Ducaroy’s imagination

Togo’s surface, made up of layer upon layer of folds, is often compared to ‘a frowning newborn’s face’ or ‘the wrinkles of a shar-pei puppy.’ A widely told story holds that the folded form came to Michel Ducaroy one day when he saw a crumpled tube of toothpaste on the sink and immediately sketched it. The exotic name has also inspired several anecdotes. One theory traces it to the ‘toga,’ the pleated traditional garment of ancient Rome. Another claims that Ducaroy spun a globe, pointed to a spot, and named the sofa after it. This guess gained credibility because his earlier designs also bore place names, such as Safi, a city in Morocco, and Marsala, a port city in Sicily. It remains unclear, however, whether Ducaroy actually drew on a toothpaste tube or a globe to conceive Togo. In one interview, he said only that “Togo looks like a toothpaste tube folded in on itself, closed at both ends like a steam pipe.” Some also say the name was the idea of the marketing director then in charge of promoting Togo. What is certain is that Togo’s form stirs the imagination enough for these stories to be accepted with little dispute.

When Togo was released in 1973, however, the public reaction was different from today. It was first unveiled at the Salon des Arts Ménagers in Paris. The fair also featured wooden furniture by French designers active at the time, including Pierre Chapo and Marcel Gascoin. In contrast, some visitors who saw Togo’s radical form remarked, “Did they forget to make the base?” and “It seems they did not finish the sofa.” Retailers were equally cold. A few industry figures, however, took a closer look. Among them were the judges of the Prix René Gabriel. The prize is awarded to innovative and democratic furniture, and it assesses whether a design offers high quality at a reasonable price. Recognized as meeting these criteria, Togo earned Michel Ducaroy the award in 1973. Togo then became widely known and went on to great success.

The year 1973, when Togo was released, was also the year Ligne Roset moved beyond a family business and launched as an official brand. Around this time, the brand name was finalized and the first Ligne Roset store opened. The arrival of the Togo sofa, which would come to represent the brand, also became an important starting point for establishing Ligne Roset. Michel Ducaroy’s imagination opened a new chapter for the brand, and he went on to head Ligne Roset’s design department. Since 1973, Togo has been made without interruption at a factory in Briord, a small village at the foot of the Jura Mountains in France. Its signature folds are still crafted by hand by skilled artisans.

Foam, a versatile new material

Michel Ducaroy had presented several sofa designs with Ligne Roset before Togo. Their defining feature was a very low seat resting directly on the floor. Beginning with the Adria collection, the first piece in Ligne Roset’s history made entirely of foam, a series of sofas followed with foam-filled interiors and seats held in place by buttons. Structurally, these designs shared so many features that they can be considered the predecessors of Togo.

Behind Michel Ducaroy’s imaginative work were the new materials and technical advances of the period, such as foam, thermoformed plastics, and wadding. After polyurethane foam was developed in the 1950s, technology capable of producing an entire sofa from foam was fully in place by the 1970s. Polyurethane foam resisted moisture and deformation, and its even distribution of tension allowed it to provide stable seating comfort over long periods. Building on this, designers began presenting sofas made of foam, including the Mah Jong sofa designed by Hans Hopfer for Roche Bobois in 1971, as well as works by Pierre Paulin and several radical Italian designers.

With the emergence of foam, quilting, and thermoformed plastics, designers were exploring new ideas of seating. Against this backdrop, Jean Roset and Michel Ducaroy developed new production techniques through the 1960s and 1970s. They continued to refine these methods while conceiving a new model, and the result was Togo. They worked with Recticel, a Belgian manufacturer of foam-based industrial products, which devised a structure combining three types of polyurethane foam and dramatically improved the durability of the all-foam sofa. Wrapping foam in fabric or leather without a base allowed for expandable modular arrangements, and the light weight made the pieces easy to move. Above all, it offered comfortable seating. Togo was a prime example of how new materials rapidly transformed sofa design as a whole.

Until the 1950s, the mainstream was dominated by steel-framed Bauhaus furniture or the formal, conservative designs of cabinetmakers and craftsmen such as Alvar Aalto, Hans Wegner, and Finn Juhl. In this context, Togo was read as a challenge to the established order. Ligne Roset ran Togo posters with the line “Ancestors’ portraits and a Roset sofa together? Why not?” (la galerie des ancêtres et un siège Roset? Pourquoi pas), fixing in the public mind a new type of sofa far removed from traditional interiors.

The 1970s and the rise of style

The public acceptance and success of Togo’s distinctive design were rooted in the social and cultural changes that had taken shape since the late 1960s. In 1968, France went through upheaval across society, with mass student protests and a general strike. Known as ‘May 68,’ these events gave voice to the frustration of young people and workers with authoritarian social structures and the established order. They led to education reform, sexual liberation, and a new understanding of the social role of art. As the May 68 slogan ‘Find the beach beneath the paving stones’ (trouver la plage sous les pavés) suggests, questioning the established order gave rise to new forms and modes of expression across art and design.

Togo emerged from this spirit of the times. With its irregular form, its use of new materials, and the public enthusiasm it met, it can be seen as a distillation of the changed sensibilities after 1968 and the creative energy of the 1970s. This shift was felt beyond France as well. In 1960s Britain, Mods culture emerged, represented by young people in parkas riding scooters. In Italy, Joe Colombo, Mario Bellini, Achille Castiglioni, Gaetano Pesce, and others shaped a new design discourse through experimental products that made bold use of the volume and flexibility of foam.

The 1970s were an ideal era for Togo. Shaggy rugs, lava lamps, and furniture without rigid structure filled interiors. Fashion and popular culture also broadened their range of expression, with psychedelic art, Andy Warhol’s paintings, disco culture, and extreme silhouettes all coexisting. Established, stable standards gave way to all kinds of experiments, and people naturally began to embrace a way of living in relaxed postures or sunk deep into cushions.

The ‘conversation pit,’ a sunken built-in seating area in the living room floor proposed by Eero Saarinen in 1957, had become common in homes by the 1970s. This later extended to the idea of ‘cocooning’ in the early 1980s, an attitude of retreating from the outside world to seek comfort in one’s own safe space. Composed of various modules, Togo became an iconic French design of the 1970s within this trend, and it was especially loved by musicians and artists. They embraced Togo as a piece of furniture that symbolized a departure from conventional ways of life, and they saw it as a soft space where they could curl up and linger for hours.

Interiors in the 1970s became more unpredictable and personal, readily adopting a new vocabulary that followed midcentury modernism. Togo could be dressed in a wide range of covers, from leather to velvet and colorful fabrics. It suited an era when the desire for creative freedom was expanding through new tools and versatile materials. The free spirit of 1970s counterculture continues to influence design and lifestyle today.

The glamorous return of an icon

Drawing attention for its avant-garde design from its debut in 1973, Togo has long been regarded as a significant chair in design history. More than 50 years later, it is still in production and remains Ligne Roset’s signature best seller. At the same time, Togo made a ‘glamorous comeback’ in the 2020s. The global pandemic that began in 2019 led many people to take an interest in furniture and interiors. Togo spread quickly on social media through the homes of influencers and celebrities and once again found itself at the center of trends.

It is rare for a single piece of furniture to spark such wide conversation. The phenomenon recalls the cycle of icons that has repeated across fashion and design. Women’s suits that first appeared in the 1920s were reinterpreted in Yves Saint Laurent’s collections in the 1960s, and early 2000s style resurfaced in the 2020s under the name Y2K. The interest in Togo has had side effects, such as the spread of imitations, but this cycle of repetition and variation can be understood as a constant throughout design history. The current environment, in which images spread rapidly on social media and access has widened, also echoes the context of Togo’s original launch.

When Togo was launched, Ligne Roset actively pursued a new promotional strategy with Jacques Séguéla, the leading advertising strategist of the day, to fix Togo’s image in the minds of consumers. This approach continued into the early 2000s, when the brand presented a special advertising campaign for Togo with Pierre Berville of the French advertising agency Callegari Berville Grey. Pairing provocative copy with the work of renowned photographers, the campaign was widely acclaimed and won the 2004 APPM (Association pour la Promotion de la Presse Magazine) Grand Prix. It played an important role in shaping public perception of Togo. Togo’s early success, too, was closely tied to such communication strategies.

Yet Togo’s lasting appeal does not come from exposure alone. The imagination, energy, and distinctive humor it embodies have resonated across generations, and its wide range of colors and materials has offered choices not limited to any single taste. Its modular structure and long-proven durability have also supported its success. Ongoing variations, such as a children’s version and armrests added to some models, have made it more adaptable to different settings. Togo fits naturally not only in trendy spaces but also in stately mansions and modern lofts, and it accommodates styles from minimalist to industrial and bohemian. Having appeared in the homes of figures such as Lenny Kravitz, Bob Sinclar, Matt Sorum, Florence Foresti, and Marc Rebillet, the sofa still shows its unchanging charm today, with the soft, folded silhouette that people have sunk into for two generations.

Togo Composition

The Togo collection consists of eight models in total. They include straight and corner sofas that vary in seat size, depth, and the presence of armrests. Each model can be used alone or combined with other Togo sofas and footstools. Ligne Roset also offers 10 composition sets that arrange the models in suitable configurations. Their light weight makes them easy to move and rearrange, and an anti-slip fabric lining on the base keeps them firmly in place.

Quilting

A generous amount of material is used to create the signature folded, quilted surface. All cutting and sewing are still done by hand at the factory in France. To achieve perfectly even, full folds, artisans invest a high level of skill and considerable time. This is also where the clearest difference between Togo and its imitations lies.

Buttons

To set the small, flat buttons in exactly the right positions, a long needle is pushed through the quilting to sew them in place. The buttons secure the folds and quilting firmly to the foam.

Foam

A layered structure of three types of polyurethane foam with different densities allows the sofa to conform to the body while strengthening support for the back and seat. At the bottom, high-density foam provides stable support. The middle layer has a medium density and acts as a cushion, and the softest foam is used on top. This structure delivers comfortable seating and extends the life of the sofa, making it the most important element of Togo, which has no frame and is made entirely of foam.

Upholstery

A wide range of upholstery options is available, including leather, canvas, velvet, and printed fabrics. Beyond the roughly 60 fabrics offered by Ligne Roset, the sofa can be freely customized with other fabrics, creating a variety of moods depending on the material.