Wooden Doll Cat

The Wooden Dolls by Alexander Girard are a large family of wooden figures representing human and animal characters. Girard designed them in 1958 for his own use as decorative objects in his Santa Fe home. These originals, which are part of the Girard estate in the holdings of the Vitra Design Museum, served as models for the current re-editions. Precisely replicated down to the last detail, the many different Wooden Dolls are still fabricated and painted by hand today, just like the vintage pieces by Alexander Girard. And even if the differences between them are only very slight: each wooden figure is a unique, individual product, truly one of a kind.

Born in 1907 in New York City, Alexander Girard was one of the leading figures of postwar American design, along with his close friends and colleagues George Nelson and Charles & Ray Eames.

The primary focus of his wide-ranging oeuvre was textile design. Girard created numerous fabrics for the Herman Miller Company, favouring abstract forms and geometric patterns in a wide variety of colour compositions. Many of his upholstery fabrics remain as timely and vital as ever and are still manufactured and utilised by Vitra today.

Having originally studied architecture, Girard made a name for himself over his long career in the fields of furniture, exhibition, interior and graphic design. Moreover, he was one of the world's most important collectors of folk art. The objects and textiles acquired by Girard on his extensive travels provided him with a rich source of inspiration and ideas. When Rolf Fehlbaum, the son of Vitra's founding family, first visited Alexander Girard and his wife Susan at their Santa Fe home in 1960, Fehlbaum wrote a letter to his parents telling of the deep impression it had made on him, and describing it as the most fascinating house he had ever seen in the United States.

Vitra and the Vitra Design Museum have devoted themselves to the reappraisal and revival of Alexander Girard's work over the past several years. The growing Girard collection in Vitra's product portfolio includes his painted Wooden Dolls, the Environmental Enrichment Panels and various furniture pieces and objects, along with his distinctive fabric designs.

After Alexander Girard's death in 1993, his heirs donated the Girard archive (comprising hundreds of drawings, prototypes and samples) to the Vitra Design Museum. In 2016/23, the museum mounted the exhibition 'Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe'.