In a previous post we looked at two summer designs by Glans, so let's have a short fashion history lesson about it. Glans was an Italian boutique brand that was popular in the '60s, together with other ready-to-wear casual brands such as Valditevere, Vito, Scarabocchio, Avolio, Mirsa, Naka and Avagolf. Today we may find a fashion designer working for their own brand and for another company, and, in more or less the same way, the collections of these boutique brands were often created by well-known fashion names, but, price-wise, they were more affordable.
For example, Walter Albini worked for a while for Glans (but he also worked for Billy Ballo, Cadette and Cole of California to mention just a few brands). In the '70s Albini created for Glans collections inspired by China, for both men and women.
Yet, even before Albini's collections inspired by East Asia, Glans had turned to the Orient for motifs, patterns and prints, as proved by this Summer 1960 ensemble consisting in a classic black and brown silk shirt with a masculine cut with a print of stylised kokeshi dolls, with matching shorts. The motif on this top calls to mind Alexander Girard's "Wooden Dolls". 
Born in 1907 in New York City, Alexander Girard became a key figure of postwar American design, together with George Nelson and Charles & Ray Eames. Girard studied architecture, but had an extensive career in interior and graphic design. He became indeed well-known for his upholstery fabrics for the Herman Miller Company (from 1952 to 1973).
While his first fabric lines were more architectural and therefore focused on plain geometries, little by little, he added more variation and created more patterns and designs, often inspired by folk art and characterised by abstract shapes and geometric motifs in a wide variety of colour combinations.
Girard also collected folk art and acquired objects and textiles during his travels. In 1962, Girard and his wife established the Girard Foundation in Santa Fe to manage their art collection that comprised over 100,000 pieces and, in 1978, the designer contributed his collection to the local Museum of International Folk Art.
Girard conceived his family of wooden figures representing human and animal characters, created in 1952, as playful decorative objects for his Santa Fe home. Some of the dolls, all made in solid pinewood, look joyful, others have enigmatic or cheeky expressions on their faces.
Collected at the Vitra Design Museum, the originals are used as models for the re-editions by Vitra (Girard's Wooden Dolls are still fabricated and painted by hand today).
In many ways this fashion and interior design juxtaposition works well: Glans' print of kokeshi wooden dolls (handcrafted pieces from the Tohoku region in Northern Japan that were traditionally made as guardians of children but that later became popular amongst collectors) in striped dresses calls indeed to mind Girard's wooden dolls decorated with bold and bright geometrical patterns.
