Romola Garai Actress Model Sofa Stockings

Romola Garai is a British actress and fashion icon who gained international fame for her role in the Black Swan. She has been featured in i-D magazine’s “The It List” and listed among the Top 50 Influencers on Instagram. Garai has also been recognized for her contributions to the autism community, having founded the organization Raising Autism’s Access to Education (RAeA) in partnership with The Prince’s Foundation for Children and Birth Defects. In this role, Garai promotes social awareness, highlighting the special challenges and educational needs of children and young people on social media platforms.

Garai has modeled for fashion brands like Gucci and shown her dress collection for Elle UK. In addition to her work in fashion, Garai has also made guest appearances on television shows like Downton Abbey and The Bodyguard. She’s currently starring in the Netflix psychological thriller Long Life, based on a true story about a Chinese medicine practitioner who helps his patients live longer. When she’s not acting, Garai can be found exploring London with her dog, Boy.

The Sofa That Could Be A Signature Piece

Garai’s petite stature and bubbly personality make her an ideal fit for a signature sofa collection. The actress has reportedly declared her love for sofas and has amassed a massive collection of them over the years. The sofas that Garai owns include over 100 examples, ranging from modern classics like the Siena Cream Sofa to more unique items like the gold-leaf-patterned Baroque Revival sofa she picked up in Italy.

Speaking with Vogue in 2016 about her love of sofas, Garai said, “I’ve always had a bit of a thing for couches. I have a very odd relationship with them; I either love them or hate them. But I’ve always wanted a big comfortable couch of my own and still sometimes do, even now that I have a grand baby and a dog. They’re the best, especially when you have a glass of wine with a good film on TV and a fire in the grate.”

Although she’s had a varied career as an actress, model, and fashion icon, Garai’s lifelong passion for sofas is surprisingly subtle in her work. The actress has barely featured in a sofa scene in any of her movies or on any of her TV shows. The closest she got was in the 2015 romantic comedy The Holiday, where she played a glamorous, wealthy socialite who takes a liking to a modern-art sofa she spots at a London gallery.

The holiday actress has a bit part where she sits on a sofa and briefly chats with a friend. In the conversation, she references a sofa she bought in Florence as an ‘it’ item and later names off a specific piece of furniture she has in mind. The dialogue, which runs for about two minutes in the finished theatrical version of the film, is the only on-screen appearance of the piece of furniture named in the dialogue.

One can assume from this that Garai’s affection towards sofas is not an act or a carefully crafted brand image, but rather a genuine personal passion. Garai has built a reputation over the years for being a woman of strong taste and a shrewd investment eye, and it would be no surprise if she began using the sofas as a way to indulge herself on social media.

Unique Furniture Designs With A Vibe

While Garai has named many famous sofas in the past, she’s also gone on record in interviews about her love for unique and limited-edition pieces. These are the sofas that she gets excited about, which is lucky for us, the fans, because she always lets us know when one of these pieces comes up for sale.

Garai gets especially animated when talking about a blue sphere-shaped sofa she purchased in 2003. The actress spoke with style site It-Girl about the piece and how she likes to rest her head on it when she’s watching TV. “It’s funny, I sometimes use it as an excuse when guests come over. They always ask if I’m watching TV and I say, ‘No, my head is resting on a blue sphere,’” she said. “It’s a very calming, centering experience. You can only really sit in it for a couple of minutes before you start to wonder what on Earth it is. It’s absolutely stunning. It’s one of the most unique things I own.”

One of the most recognizable pieces of furniture in the world, Marjorie Merriweather Pope’s ‘Pearl Fountain’ for example, has been spotted in the homes of celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Eva Perón. One of the most expensive and unique sofas in existence is Dolly Wilde’s Blue Train Sofa. It was built in the shape of a giant darning egg and is made entirely out of jade, ivory, and mother-of-pearl, with interiors by Thonet & Co. The piece was previously owned by Wilde, the American socialite and fashion icon.

It makes sense that Garai would fall in love with a piece of furniture this unique and designed by a prominent furniture company, as it has a style that’s right at home in her personal collection. The Baroque revival-style Rugsby Sofa is also quite the talking point, as it was designed by the British firm Bennet Woodcraft in the shape of a giant paisley. It’s even more impressive in person due to its size, measuring over nine feet by five feet. The paisley-patterned sofa remains one of the most photographed pieces of furniture in existence. It was previously owned by the late fashion designer and businesswoman Anna Wintour. When she died, the piece was bequeathed to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where it still resides. It was most recently featured in a Gucci advertisement and in the 2019 Netflix series The King.

The Most Expensive Sofa In History

Garai is a style icon who has graced the cover of numerous magazines, but her love for sofas is arguably unmatched. The most expensive sofa in history belongs to Garai and is located at the Museo Barbican in Barcelona. The piece was hand-knotted by a member of the Maas family, who own one of the world’s most prominent basket-weaving companies. The piece, named ‘Sofa Maas’ in recognition of its designer, is one of the most expensive and famous sofas in history. It sold for 732,500 Euros, which is equivalent to $956,907.50 at current exchange rates. This is the equivalent of over 70 years of salary for a skilled industrial worker. This is probably why this particular sofa remains in the possession of the Maas family to this day, as it was passed down through the generations.

This particular sofa was a wedding present from Ms. Maas to Mr. Maas in 1945. It took over 100 years for the company to produce their first custom-made piece of furniture, which is no ordinary feat. Even more impressive is that they went on to design a second piece named ‘Sofa Marc’ that year, which sold for 582,500 Euros in 1947.

The price tag on these sofas reflects their exquisite quality and the fact that they were built to last several generations. Indeed, many high-end fashion brands have been known to draw inspiration from this particular historical design. Some people have even gone as far as to describe these two sofas as ‘Barcelona’s version of the Turin Palladium’. Not a bad description at all.

Sofas Have A History

In addition to the unique designs and limited editions that Garai has fallen in love with, she has also purchased many sofas that have been featured in prominent design houses’ shows. Indeed, the British fashion house Dior is currently exhibiting a collection of sofas at the London Design Museum. The sofas were shown in a recent advertisement for Dior’s textile label Diorsignature and are said to have been inspired by the House’s signature fragrance, which is named after one of the pieces.

It is well-known in the industry that Gucci loves to feature their sofas in art exhibits and museums, as these are often symbols of status and quality. The Italian design house has been known to use their sofas as a way to draw attention to their shows, whether they’re in a museum or a gallery.