Vitra Elephant Stool in Cream by Sori Yanagi

The postwar era in Japan is now considered the origin of the country’s design and manufacturing revolution, and the Elephant stool, designed in 1954 by Sori Yanagi (1915–2011), is one of the most recognizable objects to emerge from it.

The Elephant stool — named for its similarity to the lovable mammal’s chunky feet — is a stackable three-legged plastic stool. Originally produced in fiberglass by Japan's Kotobuki Seating, the Swiss furniture company Vitra now makes the stool in injection-molded plastic, the result of an easy and inexpensive manufacturing process for which Yanagi developed a range of colorways. The piece can be adapted for both indoor and outdoor use and is a favorite for children and nurseries thanks to its charming shape and easy-to-clean material.

Yanagi is well-known for his organic forms, which stem from a postwar nationwide effort on behalf of designers to balance traditional Asian sensibilities with Western modernism and industrial techniques. The Elephant stool’s gently sloping legs and soft dimpled seat evoke the curves favored by other Western furniture makers like Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, but the simplicity and biomorphic shape have a distinctly Asian — and a distinctly Yanagi — nature.

Yanagi’s now-signature style owes to a wide range of influences. He was born in Tokyo in 1915, and his father, Soetsu Yanagi, founded both the Mingei movement — a Japanese folk art movement that celebrated the beauty of ordinary handcrafted objects — and the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. Sori became director of the museum in 1977. His father’s passion for finding and creating beauty in functional, everyday objects can be seen in Yanagi’s practical but evocative designs for his tea kettles, manhole covers and more. Yanagi studied art and architecture at the Tokyo Art School and cited the work of modernist architect Charles-Édouard "Le Corbusier” Jeanneret as having played a role in his becoming a designer. Yanagi later worked with forward-thinking French designer Charlotte Perriand when she lived in Japan. 

In his long career, Yanagi designed hundreds of quotidian objects: His stainless-steel tea kettles are amongst Japan’s all-time best-selling designs, and his dedication to finding elegance in organic forms as seen in the graceful Elephant stool is the reason it remains a timeless artifact and symbol from an important period in design history.

Design house Vitra has garnered international recognition for more than 70 years — the Swiss family-owned furniture company has outfitted public spaces as well as residential properties and offices worldwide. It has been a proponent of modernist design since the 1950s. While the brand is heralded for its collaborations with mid-century modern icons such as Verner Panton, Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard and others, Vitra’s German campus is also home to buildings designed by legendary architects Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. Among them is the Vitra Design Museum, an independent cultural institution that displays two centuries of design today.

Vitra was established in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, in 1950 by husband and wife team Willi and Erika Fehlbaum. On a trip to New York several years later, Willi Fehlbaum encountered the work of design polymaths Ray and Charles Eames in a furniture store and immediately knew that he had found his bliss.

In 1957, Vitra entered into a licensing agreement with Herman Miller, which saw the company producing designs by George Nelson, the Eameses and others. Later, Vitra partnered with Verner Panton and created the Panton chair, which was the first chair ever crafted from a single piece of molded plastic (it was also the first piece to be independently developed by Vitra). After 27 years of establishing the Vitra brand, the Fehlbaums passed control to their two sons, Rolf and Raymond Fehlbaum.

When a fire destroyed the factory in 1981, the brothers developed the Vitra Factory Campus, subsequently taking the opportunity to redirect the architectural landscape of the company. They created a masterplan with Nicholas Grimshaw, and together they erected four buildings in just a few short years.

In 1988, with the passing of Ray Eames and the disbandment of the Los Angeles Eames office, Rolf and Raymond acquired the furniture design portion of her estate, including the Eames prototypes and experimental models, housed today in the Vitra Design Museum.

Rolf and Roy opened the Vitra Design Museum in 1989. This began a period rich with design relationships, including collaborations with Antonio Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Maarten van Severen, Philippe Starck, Alberto Meda and others.

In 2012, leadership passed to Nora, the third generation of the Fehlbaums. Nora Fehlbaum has, like her grandparents, expanded the company and brought it into the 21st century with the acquisition of Finnish furniture manufacturer Artek. Nora has turned the company’s focus to sustainability yet still maintains its international and cultural relevance legacy.

Find a collection of Vitra lounge chairs, tables, side chairs, sofas and other furniture on 1stDibs.