--- title: British Artist Gigi Barker Creates Human Flesh Furniture description: Strangely, not part of the Buffalo Bill Home Collection canonical: https://time.com/3048751/this-furniture-looks-feels-and-smells-like-its-made-out-of-human-skin/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-29T12:30:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:31.944Z og:title: This Furniture Looks, Feels and Smells Like It's Made Out of Human Skin og:description: Strangely, not part of the Buffalo Bill Home Collection og:url: https://time.com/3048751/this-furniture-looks-feels-and-smells-like-its-made-out-of-human-skin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae1fcadeb3144e30/69869dbad0b6f2e3a6305807/mg_5501.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: _MG_5501 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Furniture Looks, Feels and Smells Like It's Made Out of Human Skin twitter:description: Strangely, not part of the Buffalo Bill Home Collection twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae1fcadeb3144e30/69869dbad0b6f2e3a6305807/mg_5501.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Furniture Looks, Feels and Smells Like It's Made Out of Human Skin > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fce06ab9-c36f-4019-b219-6e30985d3343&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 29, 2014 12:30 PM UTC  Courtesy Gigi Barker by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 29, 2014 12:30 PM UTC A set of furniture designed by Gigi Barker looks a lot like what Hannibal Lecter might use to decorate his family room. The British designer and founder of [design studio 9191](http://www.9191.co.uk/new.html) has crafted a material that has the look, feel and — thanks to the addition of after shave to the mix – smell of human flesh. Barker used the pheromone-impregnated silicone base to craft a collection of chairs and footstools, which were modeled after the Rubenesque folds of a man’s stomach. No word on whether you need to moisturize the chairs with lotion to help them keep their luster. While the chair may make your skin crawl, Barker isn’t just trying to creep out her audience. She believes that the unique material lets people form a physical connection to the piece and allows them the opportunity to examine their relationship to their own skin and other people’s. Plus, the material reacts to bodies and according to Barker, speaking to Wired UK, matches a human’s body temperature, which is “perfect for soothing a crying baby”. If the concept doesn’t scare you, the price tag might – the combined cost of the chair and stool is over $4,000 (£2,380). That said, Barker’s show at Central Saint Martin’s sold out last month, [according to Wired UK](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/25/skin-furniture), and she’s already in talks with retailers.  Courtesy Gigi Barker **MORE**: [Sweden’s ‘Hannibal Lecter’ is Set Free](http://time.com/31497/sture-bergwall-thomas-quick-freed-from-swedish-psychiatric-ward/) **MORE**: [Ikea’s Chinese Stores Invite Customers to Take a Snooze](http://time.com/2962590/ikea-china-sleep/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3048751/this-furniture-looks-feels-and-smells-like-its-made-out-of-human-skin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3048751/this-furniture-looks-feels-and-smells-like-its-made-out-of-human-skin/"},"headline":"This Furniture Looks, Feels and Smells Like It's Made Out of Human Skin","datePublished":"2014-07-29T12:30:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:31.944Z","description":"Strangely, not part of the Buffalo Bill Home Collection","url":"https://time.com/3048751/this-furniture-looks-feels-and-smells-like-its-made-out-of-human-skin/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","Art","Design","furniture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae1fcadeb3144e30/69869dbad0b6f2e3a6305807/mg_5501.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae1fcadeb3144e30/69869dbad0b6f2e3a6305807/mg_5501.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"_MG_5501","caption":"","creditText":"Courtesy Gigi Barker","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3048751/this-furniture-looks-feels-and-smells-like-its-made-out-of-human-skin/","name":"This Furniture Looks, Feels and Smells Like It's Made Out of Human Skin"}}]}] ```