Pastoe

Pastoe is a Dutch furniture and design brand whose company was founded in Utrecht in 1913 by Frits Loeb. A supplied historical account identifies the original company as UMS Pastoe and says that its factory has been located at Rotsoord in Utrecht since 1918. The brand’s name is described in that account as deriving from “passepartout.” Its identity has been associated with minimalist design, functional thinking, clear forms, and a close relationship between furniture and architecture. Pastoe makes and presents furniture and interior products. Its current website features furniture, home decor, and lighting, and highlights storage furniture, seating, and pieces by Dutch designers. The collection includes the A’dammer storage cabinet, with its distinctive roller shutter; the Landscape cabinet, presented with custom-colour options; the Wire seating series; and Gerrit Rietveld’s Zwaan armchair. Pastoe’s website describes the Zwaan as a reissue of a chair designed in 1958, and presents the Wire series as a return to its collection. The brand’s design history is closely connected with Cees Braakman, who became chief designer in 1948, as well as Aldo van den Nieuwelaar and Benno Premsela. Pastoe’s current collection also brings together selected designs associated with Spectrum, Rietveld Originals, and Atelier Artiforte, including works by Gerrit Rietveld, Martin Visser, and Kho Liang Ie. The company’s official site frames this as a continuing Dutch design legacy updated for contemporary use. The supplied materials do not identify Pastoe’s present owner, parent company, named executives, or detailed geographic sales footprint.

Pastoe’s company history begins in Utrecht in 1913, when Frits Loeb founded the business under the name UMS Pastoe, according to the supplied Italian-language Wikipedia entry. That source explains the name as deriving from “passepartout” and says that the factory has been located at Rotsoord in Utrecht since 1918. The site is described as bringing together design studios, production lines, and a showroom. The supplied materials do not independently confirm the company’s present facilities or ownership. The company’s furniture tradition is characterized in the historical source as minimalist and influenced by early twentieth-century functionalism. It describes the furniture as conceived in a close relationship with architecture, mediating between architectural scale and human scale. This design approach is reflected in the brand’s contemporary official presentation, which emphasizes clarity of form, honest materials, functional design, and furniture made to last. A central figure in Pastoe’s design history is Cees Braakman. The official site says he grew up in the Pastoe factory and became chief designer in 1948, helping establish the functional and timeless character associated with the brand. His Wire series, made using steel wire to achieve an open appearance while retaining comfort and durability, is again included in Pastoe’s collection. The official product story identifies the series as comprising a chair, stool, and bar stool. Other important designers and collaborators named in the supplied sources include Aldo van den Nieuwelaar, Benno Premsela, Gerrit Rietveld, Kho Liang Ie, Karel Boonzaaijer, and Pierre Mazairac. The historical source identifies Braakman’s steel-wire SM05 chairs, van den Nieuwelaar’s cabinets, and the modular Vision storage series by Boonzaaijer and Mazairac among products that marked the brand’s development. It also lists designers and architects such as Dick Bruna, Shirō Kuramata, Shigeru Uchida, Maarten van Severen, and Vincent van Duysen as having worked with Pastoe. Pastoe’s present official collection is described as a curated combination of the brand’s own heritage and selected designs from Spectrum, Rietveld Originals, and Atelier Artiforte. In its “A New Chapter” presentation, Pastoe identifies works by Gerrit Rietveld, Martin Visser, Kho Liang Ie, and others as part of a unified collection connecting past and present. Recent collection stories include the return of the Wire series and the reissue of Rietveld’s Zwaan armchair. The official Zwaan story says Rietveld designed the chair in 1958 for the World Exhibition in Brussels and that it was later placed in the press room of UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Pastoe presents its reissue as a contemporary continuation of the designer’s work. The supplied evidence does not establish precise dates for these recent collection changes or identify the company’s current owners or executives.

• 1958

  Gerrit Rietveld designs the Zwaan armchair

• 1948

  Cees Braakman becomes chief designer

• 1918

  Factory located at Rotsoord

• 1913

  Frits Loeb founds UMS Pastoe in Utrecht

• Pastoe presents an updated collection as a new chapter

Dutch design furniture combining minimalist forms, functional thinking, craftsmanship, and enduring designs for contemporary interiors.

• A’dammer

  A storage cabinet highlighted by Pastoe for its distinctive roller shutter.

• Landscape Cabinet

  A cabinet presented by Pastoe with custom-colour options.

• Wire Series

  Cees Braakman’s steel-wire seating series, including a chair, stool, and bar stool.

• Zwaan Armchair

  Gerrit Rietveld’s armchair, designed in 1958 and reissued as part of the Pastoe collection.

• Vision

  A modular storage series attributed in the supplied historical entry to Karel Boonzaaijer and Pierre Mazairac.

• Bring selected partner collections into a unified Pastoe presentationOther

• Reissue historic designs in the contemporary collectionOther

1. 1Pastoe - Pastoepastoe.com
2. 2Zwaan - Pastoepastoe.com
3. 3Wire Series - Pastoepastoe.com
4. 4A New Chapter for Pastoe’s Iconic Collection - Pastoepastoe.com
5. 5Pastoe - Italian Wikipediait.wikipedia.org
6. 6Pastoe - Wikidatawikidata.org