Textile samples

Alexander Girard was one of the most prominent textile and interior designers of the middle decades of the 20th century. Both his interiors and textiles display a fearless use of color and pattern, and a sense of spontaneity and joy that is evokes the positive zeitgeist of the 1960s and 70s. With his use of bright colors, his charismatic appropriation of folk art styles and his interest in playfully bold and simplified geometric patterns, Girard paved the way toward a modern style that left nineteenth-century historicist ornamentation behind.

This group of 531 textile swatches representing 112 separate designs, most in multiple colorways, speaks to Girard’s creativity, showing the range of his textile work for the Herman Miller Textile division over two decades (1952–1973). Herman Miller, Inc., a giant American design firm, rose to prominence during the mid-twentieth century through promoting the use of new materials, techniques of making, and a modern style, represented in furniture within The Met’s collection—most notably work of Charles and Ray Eames.