Vitra ▸ Chairs ▸ Stools, Benches ▸ Tables ▸ Sofas ▸ Lounge Chairs ▸ Coffee & Side Tables ▸ Storage Furniture ▸ Lighting ▸ Decoration
In 1953, the entrepreneur Willi Fehlbaum discovers the furniture of Charles & Ray Eames in a New York store. Immediately seduced by the designs, his enduring enthusiasm leads to the decision to become a furniture manufacturer. Back in Switzerland, Fehlbaum gets in contact with the Herman Miller furniture company in Michigan, the manufacturer of the Eames furniture.
In 1957, after 4 years of negotiations, Vitra begins with the licensed production of the Herman Miller Collection including designs by Charles & Ray Eames, George Nelson, Alexander Girard and Isamu Noguchi. In the following years, the Fehlbaum family (Willi, his wife Erika and their eldest son Rolf) comes into contact with Nelson, Girard and the Eames' on numerous occasions. For Rolf Fehlbaum, currently Vitra’s Chairman, these encounters number among his most formative experiences.
In the early 1960s, Willi Fehlbaum makes the acquaintance of the Danish designer Verner Panton, who is seeking a manufacturer for his design of a plastic chair. Vitra’s expertise in the processing of plastics gives Fehlbaum the confidence to develop the chair for mass production together with Panton. After several years of collaborative effort, Panton’s sculpture-like chair comes onto market in 1967 – the first cantilever-based plastic chair moulded in one piece and the first product developed directly by Vitra.
In 1984, the partnership with Herman Miller is terminated by mutual consent. Vitra acquires all rights for the production of furniture designs by Charles & Ray Eames and George Nelson, as well as Alexander Girard’s textiles for Europe and the Middle East. Now able to sell these products under its own label, Vitra operates as an independent brand.
If Scandinavia Design, specialized in Scandinavian design, is associated with Vitra, a Swiss company, it is first and foremost because in 2013, Vitra bought Artek, founded in 1935 by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino, gallery owner Maire Gullichsen and art historian Nils-Gustav Hahl. But it is also, of course, because Vitra produce furniture by Verner Panton and Eero Saarinen, and because Charles and Ray Eames, the souls of Vitra, were greatly inspired by Scandinavian design. Aesthetically, the consistency is total – so natural that the Finnish company Marimekko constantly uses Vitra furniture to stage its products.
Scandinavia Design has two showrooms where Vitra furniture is displayed.
The main showroom, located at Le Prieuré between Angers and Saumur, houses the main exhibition, backed up by the warehouse and logistics center. The showroom is easy to get to, with no parking problems - and the Loire River flowing nearby, offers visitors the added bonus of beautiful scenery amidst the region's many vineyards.
A second showroom, located in downtown Angers, a stone's throw from the TGV station, is designed to welcome business customers by appointment.
Scandinavia Design invites you to explore Vitra
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Eames Lounge Chair
Eames Chairs
plastic or fiberglass
shell
with or without armrest
LCW Eames - Lounge Chair Wood
Ray & Charles Eames - 1958
Vitra
Aluminium group - a story!
Home Desk
George Nelson - 1958
Vitra
Panton chair
Standard chair
EM Table
… and more.
… and more.
lounge chairs, daybeds, sofas…
CONTACT US
Need advice?
Would you like to visit us to see the products on display?
Need a professional quote?
> Write to us
Scandinavia Design
> authorized Vitra dealer.
Price Guarantee
Offering design at the right price is an integral part of our work. If you find the same item at a lower price at another retailer, delivery included, we will not only match it, but even offer you a better price.
How to take advantage of it?
We compare our prices every day with all authorized retailers in Europe. If nevertheless you find cheaper, contact us for a counter-proposal.
We must be able to verify that the item is authentic, new, perfectly identical (size, materials, color, etc.)
and that it is not part of a campaign or temporary destocking.
The valid basis is, for example, a current quote or a direct link to another retailer's website where the lower price is indicated. An email image is invalid, the original email must be forwarded.
The offer does not apply to orders already placed and cannot be combined with any of our other offers or promotions.