Along with his colleagues Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson, Alexander Girard was one of the leading figures in American design during the postwar era. While textile design was the primary focus of Girard’s oeuvre, he was also admired for his work in the graphic arts as well as furniture, exhibition and interior design. Girard brought a sensuous playfulness to twentieth-century design that had been absent from the austere aesthetic of classic modernism.

Girard devoted the same level of attention to every visible surface in an interior. Ceilings, walls and floors were treated with great care and coordinated with the moveable objects in the room.