👉 Okay, let’s tackle this wonderfully prickly little word – "Ariton." Now, before we begin, I want to preface things by saying that honestly? Nobody outside a very specific corner of the early-mid 20th century absolutely knows what it was exactly. It's essentially a legendary footnote in the history of American car upholstery!
Basically, an “Aritonian waistcoat seat," as they were officially termed, was a ridiculously ornate and frankly quite baffling piece of seating that you could
absolutely not actually sit on
. You see, they were made by the Ariton Body Corporation. They specialized in high-end stuff for Packard cars during the late 1920s and early 30s, and they decided that the most stylish and impressive seat a Packard could possibly get was…a decorative panel of pleated, heavily embroidered velvet. It looked like something a Victorian dowager might wear. The point? To absolutely not let you sit on it.
The whole thing was a spectacular display of American exuberance and a desperate attempt to impress. You wouldn't
use
the seat; you’d admire its ridiculous beauty. 30,000 were apparently churned out during that short, somewhat frantic period. They then vanished almost entirely from the historical record. Now they are considered a priceless kitsch item – and a fantastic way to immediately make your house look like it belongs in the set of a very confused old money