The Ligne Roset Togo: The Definitive Guide

Published on: May 28, 2026 ｜ Read time: 9 minutes 

Author: Tom Allason 

The Togo is the most-recognised piece of 20th-century French furniture design, and quite possibly the most-recognised piece of seating ever made. A low, foam-only, modular sofa designed by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Roset in 1973, it has remained in continuous production for over fifty years.

Half a century on, the silhouette still leads the discipline. A new Togo set costs £6,000 to £9,000 from the showroom, with an eight- to sixteen-week wait.

The same authenticated set at REHAUS arrives in days. The originals, restored, one of one, covered by the Forever Guarantee.

About the author

Tom Allason is the founder and CEO of REHAUS, the circular designer furniture platform. He works directly with the REHAUS authentication, restoration and sourcing teams, and writes on iconic design, circular ownership, and the economics of designer furniture.

Short on time? Here are the key takeaways

• The Togo is the sofa Michel Ducaroy designed for Ligne Roset in 1973.
• The Togo collection runs as a modular system.
• A new Togo set costs approximately £6,000 to £9,000 with an eight to sixteen-week wait.
• Since March 2025, every Togo sofa comes with a secure digital passport.
• The structure has been partially manufactured from post-consumer recycled materials.
• Every Togo at REHAUS is one of one, authenticated, and covered by the Forever Guarantee.

Why the Togo Matters

The Togo is the piece that explains Ligne Roset.

In 1973, Ligne Roset was a small French family-run furniture company, founded in 1860 in the Ain region of eastern France. Michel Ducaroy was its design director and had been since 1954. The Togo turned a regional French manufacturer into an internationally recognised design house, and it did so by violating almost every assumption the industry held about what a sofa was.

There was no internal frame. No legs. No structural wood. The Togo sat directly on the floor, supported entirely by different densities of polyether foam. A 26 kg/m3 1.4 kPa polyether for the seat (foam 26 kg m3), a 28 kg/m3 3.2 kPa polyether for the back, and a 4.8 kPa high-resilience polyurethane foam for the structure beneath. Oversized covers are generously quilted with polyester wadding, hand-sewn into pleated panels, and the elasticity of foams reinforced by these covers gives the silhouette its name.

It earned Ducaroy the René-Gabriel Prize at the 1973 Salon des Arts Ménagers, the major French design award of its era.

What the Togo captured was the moment furniture was allowed to be casual. Fifty years on, the silhouette has outlived every fashion that surrounded it.

In 2025, Ligne Roset partnered with Trust-Place to fit every Togo sofa with a blockchain-backed digital passport. In 2026, Ligne Roset advanced the Togo's structural foam to ~50% post-consumer recycled content, on the mass balance principle. 

Both moves treat the Togo as a living catalogue piece, not a heritage one.

The Pieces That Make Up the Togo Collection

The Togo is sold as a modular system. Configurations have stayed faithful to Ducaroy's 1973 specification.

• Togo Fireside Chair (single seat, no arms). The entry piece. New retail is around £2,000 to £2,500.
• Togo Two-Seater Settee. A short, intimate form. Around £3,200 to £3,800 new.
• Togo Three-Seater Sofa. The canonical silhouette. New retail £4,500 to £5,500. The Togo Three-Seater at REHAUS sells at roughly half that.
• Togo Corner Unit. The modular spine of any larger configuration. The corner seat is particularly enveloping.
• Togo Ottoman. Low pouffe, frequently sold separately. The cleanest entry into the collection.
• Togo Lounge / Loveseat without arms. The long, open form.
• Togo Five-Piece Set. The flagship configuration: corner, three-seater, two-seater, fireside chair, ottoman. New retail in fabric exceeds £16,500. The Grey Togo Five Set at REHAUS sits at £8,280, restored, authenticated, and ready in days.

Covers are removable. Plain or printed fabrics are acceptable, and leather options are available.

The Designer Behind the Togo: Michel Ducaroy

Michel Ducaroy joined Ligne Roset in 1954 and led the studio's design output for over thirty years.

The Togo's foam-only, frameless construction was Ducaroy's central innovation. The orthodoxy held that a sofa was a wooden carcass with upholstery on top. Ducaroy's idea was that comfort itself could be the architecture. Almost every modular foam-led sofa designed since traces back to the Togo. Ducaroy died in 2009, yet it speaks volumes that the Togo has not been redesigned.

Configurations, Materials, and Specifications

The Togo's construction is engineering as much as it is design. Different densities of foam polyether work in concert. The seat is particularly enveloping at 26 kg m3 1.4 kPa, generously quilted with polyester wadding.

The back uses a 28 kg m3 3.2 kPa polyether for support without rigidity. Beneath sits the structural foam: 26 kg m3 4.8 kPa high-resilience polyurethane, holding the geometry under load.

The elasticity of foams reinforced by oversized covers (covers are generously quilted, hand-sewn into pleated panels) completes the form. Plain or printed fabrics are acceptable; leather options are available.

The full spec stream, as Ligne Roset publishes it: 26 kg m3 1.4 kPa polyether (seat); m3 3.2 kPa 28 kg m3 polyether (back); 28 kg m3 4.8 kPa high-resilience polyurethane foam, 26 kg m3 (structure).

The Upholstery: Fabrics and Leathers

The Togo collection features a wide range of upholstery options across its modular range. Each fabric shifts the style and register of the silhouette without altering the shape, and each one is drawn from Ligne Roset's own catalogue of materials. The descriptions below follow Ligne Roset's product literature.

• Cotton corduroy velvet. A cotton corduroy velvet with a vintage, Seventies-inspired look. Soft feel, reduced risk of marking. The fabric is closest to the original 1973 cover and is frequently used for covering settees in every Togo configuration.
• Knitted velvet. A knitted velvet with a 100% New Zealand wool pile. Resistant to wear, 100% natural and stretchy, making it the ideal covering material for the most unusual shapes the collection produces. The corner seat, the lounge, the larger configurations.
• Alcantara. Alcantara, the benchmark high-end microfibre brand, easy to clean and extremely hard-wearing. Very good resistance to abrasion, with a good degree of stain protection, and easy care across the lifetime of the piece. The choice for households where the Togo will be lived on rather than admired.
• Zana cotton viscose chenille. Zana, a cotton viscose chenille offering both softness and a pleasant feel with an incomparable velvety effect. As with all chenilles, a moiré effect may develop (caused by flattening of the fibres, which develops as with velvets) and is part of the fabric's character.
• Yarn-dyed fabric. Highly durable, woven with bold texture and a rhythmic motif. Two different coloured layers (a base layer beneath a top layer) give the fabric a three-dimensional character. This distinctive construction serves an unusual colour palette unavailable in plain weaves.
• Leather. A statement piece in any configuration. The Togo in leather is instantly recognisable, the silhouette astonishingly revealed by a single hide tone. Unparalleled comfort for lazy evenings spent on a small settee, or on the full five-piece set.

The 2026 sustainability reformulation is described in Ligne Roset's own statement, reported by Office Insight in March 2026:

The foams used for the Togo's structure have been partially manufactured from post-consumer recycled materials, based on mass balance principles, with a sustainable content target of approximately 50%. Thanks to this innovative recycling process, we are strengthening our commitment to sustainability and the circular economy. The (Re) program extends this approach by giving a second life to used models, carefully re-upholstered in recycled fabrics.

The structural and acoustic performance of the Togo is unchanged. The carbon load is materially lower.

Authentication: How to Verify a Real Togo

The Togo is one of the most counterfeited pieces of furniture in the world. It is also, since March 2025, one of the most traceable. Ligne Roset's own headline for the Togo: the certified and connected sofa.

In plain terms: every Togo built since March 2025 carries a Trust-Place QR code stitched into the back seam. Scanning it activates a blockchain-backed certificate of authenticity, registers ownership, and records every subsequent transfer for the life of the piece.

The system was built for the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which will require digital product passports across many product categories by 2027.

Ligne Roset moved early. As NFCW and Big Furniture Group reported in January 2025, the Togo was the first furniture product to receive the certificate.

For Togos pre-March 2025, the markers are physical. The original Ligne Roset label, the foam density, the hand-sewn pleat geometry, and the glue (Ligne Roset uses clear glue only, and counterfeits often show pink, blue, or purple traces).

Every Togo at REHAUS is verified against Ligne Roset's published production specifications. Construction, foam, label, hardware, stitching, glue. Models carefully re-upholstered where needed. Originals throughout.

Pre-Owned vs New: The Pricing and the Wait

A new Togo set is a serious financial commitment with a serious lead time. The same set, authenticated and pre-owned, is a different proposition.

Original 1970s and 1980s Togos still trade at meaningful prices decades after manufacture. 

Vintage Togos listed on 1stDibs routinely sit in the same range as new retail, with the rarer fabrics and configurations climbing well above it. The market reads the Togo as a piece that holds its value rather than one that depreciates.

Buying the Togo Through REHAUS

Pre-owned through REHAUS is the better way to own a Togo, full stop.

Buy a Togo new from the showroom, and you accept losing most of its value the moment it crosses the threshold. Buy it through REHAUS, and you own the same authenticated piece, with no value lost on day one, and the route back out is built in.

The Forever Guarantee covers the trade. Return the piece to REHAUS for what you paid, minus refurbishment where needed, whenever you are ready for the next. 

Every Togo on the REHAUS Ligne Roset collection is fully authenticated. We verify structural construction, foam density, label, stitching, and glue against Ligne Roset's production standards. Where the piece pre-dates the March 2025 secure digital passport, REHAUS becomes the verification. Where it post-dates it, the passport and our authentication run side by side.

Every piece is restored to REHAUS quality standards, structurally and visually. Models carefully re-upholstered in recycled fabrics where needed. Every piece is one of one. When gone, gone, with no manufactured urgency about it.

Quick delivery, one to five days, white-glove, complimentary above £3,000. The 30-day home trial covers the rest, with free same-day returns.

View the Ligne Roset Collection at REHAUS

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Ligne Roset Togo?

The Togo is a low, modular sofa designed by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Roset in 1973. It has no internal frame. The seating is constructed from different densities of foam polyether, with covers generously quilted with polyester wadding and hand-sewn pleats. It has remained in continuous production for over fifty years.

Who designed the Togo, and when?

Michel Ducaroy designed the Togo in 1973 for Ligne Roset, where he served as design director from 1954. The piece won the René-Gabriel Prize at the 1973 Salon des Arts Ménagers. Ducaroy died in 2009. The Togo has not been redesigned since.

How much does a Ligne Roset Togo cost new?

A new Togo costs approximately £2,000 to £2,500 for the fireside chair, £3,200 to £3,800 for the two-seater settee, £4,500 to £5,500 for the three-seater, and £6,000 to £9,000 or more for a multi-piece configuration, with an eight to sixteen week production lead time. Authenticated pre-owned Togos at REHAUS sell at roughly half that and arrive in 1 to 5 days.

How can I verify that a Togo is authentic?

Since March 2025, every Togo sofa comes with a secure digital passport in the form of a Trust-Place QR code stitched on the back, easily activated to confirm a certificate of authenticity. The system provides reliable proof of origin and a range of exclusive services. For older Togos, the original label, the foam density, the hand-sewn pleat geometry, and the glue colour (Ligne Roset uses clear glue only) are key markers. Every Togo at REHAUS is verified against Ligne Roset's production specifications.

Is the Togo still in production?

Yes. The Togo has been in continuous production since 1973. As of 2026, the structure has been partially manufactured from post-consumer recycled materials, based on mass balance principles, with a sustainable content target of approximately 50%, saving more than 400 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year.

What configurations does the Togo come in?

The Togo is a modular system. The Togo collection includes the fireside chair, the two-seater settee, the three-seater sofa, a corner unit, an ottoman, and an open-armed lounge. The corner seat is particularly enveloping. Plain or printed fabrics are acceptable; leather options are available.

Where can I buy an authentic pre-owned Togo in the UK?

Authenticated pre-owned Togos are available through REHAUS, where every piece is verified against Ligne Roset's production specifications and delivered in 1 to 5 days, with a 30-day home trial and the Forever Guarantee. New Togos can be bought online or through Ligne Roset's UK showrooms and authorised retailers, with an eight to sixteen week production lead time.