Charles Bernard was born in 1904 in Louhans in the Bresse region.
In 1926, at the end of his military obligations, he returned to Paris, determined to pursue a career in decoration after meeting Pol Pouchol, a decorator and future ceramist whom he had met during his military service.
Pol Pouchol took him in and introduced him to the management of Galeries Lafayette. He was immediately hired as an assistant where he learned the art of model making, drawing and colouring for the creation of objects and decoration commissions for the store.
Airborne Book - The Modernists - Paris
Pierre Guariche
Charles Bernard's personal qualities attract young talents to his company: his knowledge of manufacturing and his gifts for drawing allow him to mobilize creators, the first of whom is Pierre Guariche.
It was from 1952 that Airborne marketed the famous Prefacto program, the only industrial modular furniture of that era.
Pierre Guariche
Guariche program or Prefacto
In 1855, Joseph B. Fenby designed a wood and canvass folding chair: the Fenby chair which he registered in the United States in 1881. Manufactured by the American company “The Gold Medal Inc” from 1895, the chair became a big favourite with the military. It was light, had a removable cover, could be folded and easily carried. The manufacturing rights were sold to various European countries when shown at the Saint Louis Universal Exhibition in 1904. The British and Italian army used it in during military actions in Libya. Practical and very stable on sand, the chair became known as the “Tripolina Chair”. Since then, the chair has been made by many companies all the over world and in as many versions, either with leather or fabric covers.
Model registered in 1881 by J.B Fenby
Many passages are taken from the gallery book “Les modernistes”, written by Pierre Deligny onAirborne.
Thanks also to Daniel Bernard and his wife for their support and encouragement at the time of our takeover.