Folke Arström

Folke Arström

The mid-century master behind Focus De Luxe - the cutlery the New York Times named one of the 100 best designed products of modern times.

Folke Arström (1907-1997) began his career in 1930 in Stockholm as an artist and industrial designer. In the 40s and 50s he was one of the most prominent designers in Sweden. A position that made him an important member of the first generation of proud Scandinavian designers. Folke Arström was also artistic director at Gense in the early 1940s.

A founder of Scandinavian modernism

Born in Bromma in 1907, Folke Arström trained at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology and the Royal School of Fine Arts.

He spent his early career as a painter, graphic artist, and Art Deco object designer, including a celebrated chrome-and-bakelite cocktail shaker.

In 1936 he joined Gense as chief designer; in 1940 he became Artistic Director, a position he held for two decades.

He was part of the first generation of Scandinavian designers to fuse fine-art sensibility with industrial craftsmanship and helped define what Scandinavian modernism would mean to the rest of the world.

Focus de Luxe Collection

Focus de Luxe 20-Piece Cutlery Set

$239.99 USD

Focus de Luxe

The Focus de Luxe Collection is designed by Folke Arström. Introduced to...

Focus de Luxe

Designed in 1955. Today on your table.

Folke Arström's first major Gense work was Thebe in 1944, the brand's first truly modern stainless steel collection, drawn with clean lines borrowed from Egyptian iconography.

Eleven years later came Focus De Luxe — black-handled, aerodynamically curved, inspired by the streamlined shapes of mid-century cars and aircraft. Knife, fork, and spoon shared the exact same length and handle proportions: a radical, deliberately egalitarian decision that captured the democratic spirit of Scandinavian modernism.

The collection caused a sensation in the United States, partly because film stars and royalty — Grace Kelly among them — were seen purchasing it.

The New York Times later named it one of the 100 Best Designed Products of Modern Times.

The design that started a global conversation

When Folke Arström unveiled Focus De Luxe at Sweden's H55 exhibition in 1955, the response was immediate. The collection sold out in the United States before it reached store shelves. Grace Kelly bought a set. Seventy years later, the original silhouette is in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London — and on tables across America.

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