[63], A knit coat dress was sold at auction for $1,245 in 2008 at Christie's. Doyle's holds the record for Gernreich, set in 2002: $8,500 for two minidresses with peekaboo vinyl inserts. His revolutionary and controversial design included a bottom that "extended from the midriff to the upper thigh" and was "held up by shoestring laces that make a halter around the neck." I do smile sometimes when people tell me my clothes are so body-conscious [that] I must have studied anatomy. Image via the Nader Library. [50] He is credited with a recipe for red pepper soup, a cold soup served in red pepper cases and garnished with caviar and lemon. [24][30] The Monokini bottom was similar to a maillot swimsuit style but ended at mid-torso and was supported by two straps between the breasts and around the neck. 1940s–50s From the early 1930s, stylish resorts were frequented by women wearing midriff-baring two-piece bathing suits consisting of a bra and modest, shortslike trunks. McCall's New York Designers' Collection Plus 1011; ©1967; Rudi Gernreich - Misses' Dress in Three Lengths. He was not only interested in the aesthetic characteristics of synthetic materials, but also in their manufacturing possibilities. Designs in Los Angeles. During the 1940s, he was a dancer and costume designer for the politically progressive Lester Horton Modern Dance Troupe (an experience that undoubtedly influenced many of … The monokini, designed by Rudi Gernreich in 1964, consisting of only a brief, close-fitting bottom and two thin straps, was the first women's topless swimsuit. Peggy Moffitt was born on May 14, 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA as Margaret Anne Moffitt. She is an actress, known for Smog (1962), Senior Prom (1958) and Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? "[6] He attended Los Angeles City College, where he studied art and apprenticed for a Seventh Avenue clothing manufacturer. He immigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California. He completed his seven-year contract with Walter Bass in 1960 and founded his firm G.R. 1920s inspired shape with a high neck, low armholes (get ready to show some side boob), and a dropped waist. In 1949 he briefly worked in New York at George Carmel but didn't like the position because he felt pressured to imitate Parisian fashion. "[1], In 1951, still attempting to gain entry into the fashion world, Gernreich got a job with Morris Nagel to design for Versatogs, but Nagel required Gernreich to stick to the Versatogs design formula, which Gernreich hated. See more ideas about vintage outfits, vintage fashion, 1960s fashion. [5] Gernreich said, "Everyone with a degree of talent was motivated by a level of high taste and unquestioned loyalty to Paris. Hay and Gernreich founded the secret Mattachine Society, one of the first organizations to agitate for homosexual rights. In 1954 he met Oreste Pucciani, the future chairman of the UCLA French department, and began a relationship that would last until Gernreich's death in 1985. Instead of extravagant tucks, folds, or piping, Gernreich accentuated and molded particular body parts through the optical effect of colors and patterns. [2] In 2019, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles created Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, a major exhibition detailing Gernreich's life and career. It was a soft-cup, light-weight, seamless, sheer nylon tricot and elastic bra only available for small-breasted women. The United States did not enter World War II (1939–45) until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. "[25] In 1964, he created the first topless swimsuit, which he called the "monokini". [38][39] It had a single hook in the back. Rudi Gernreich began designing clothes under his own name in the late 1940s and continued with several partnerships manufacturing his line until 1960 when he established RG Designs. He was a founding member of and financially supported the early activities of the Mattachine Society. Rudi Gernreich and his mother were able to flee to Los Angeles. Gernreich, however, always saw his fashion concepts as carriers of a total, aesthetically formulated worldview. Born on August 8, 1922, in Vienna, Austria. [8] His mother took 16-year-old Rudi and escaped to the United States as Jewish refugees, settling in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles: Fashion Group Foundation, Inc., 1985. A Retrospective. [citation needed], Gernreich was very much against sexualization of the human body and the notion that the body was essentially shameful. In 1968 Gernreich closed his company but continued his work as a designer. In 1966, three models, Peggy Moffit, Léon Bing, and Ellen Harth, appeared in William Claxton's short film Basic Black, which focused on Rudi Gernreich's fashions. New York: Abbeville Publishers, 1990. "[10] He also designed freelance but left Lester Horton in 1948 and became a fabric salesman for Hoffman Company. A talented artist, dancer, and performer, he spent his first few years in Los Angeles as a costume designer and dancer for Lester Horton Modern Dance Troupe, whose performances revolved around racial justice and anti-fascist activism. [41][42], The retail success of the No Bra was followed in 1965 with the next design, a "no-side" bra to accommodate dresses with deep armholes. Gernreich moved into fashion design from fabric design. In the Unisex Project of 1970, for example, Gernreich arranged for a woman and a man to be shaved completely of body hair. His designs promoted a "freeing" of the body as well as unified fashion Fashion magazines ignored, for the most part, his taboo-breaking, subversive fashion strategies. To survive, his mother baked pastries that Rudi sold door-to-door. [28], In 1974, in response to Los Angeles banning nude beaches, he designed and named the first thong bathing suit that exposed the buttocks for both men and women. Gernreich studied art for a few semesters and quickly made a connection in Los Angeles with The Modern Dance Studio of Lester Horton, whose choreography was concerned with antifascist themes and racial discrimination. In 1970 he designed "Dress Codes" of the new decade for the January issue of Life magazine. Gernreich studied art for a few semesters and quickly made a connection in Los Angeles with The Modern Dance Studio of Lester Horton, whose choreography was concerned with antifascist themes and racial discrimination. He blamed the vote on "jury members from Glamour and Seventeen who don't get around to high fashion collections are responsible for the Gernreich vote." It adapted to the natural shape of the breasts and came in sheer nylon. You bet I studied anatomy. Condition: Excellent. On the one hand, the influence of the Vienna Workshops is apparent, on the other hand, Gernreich was responding to the antifashion of the 1960s and 1970s, whose signals and messages he transformed. [53], Gernreich was a founding member of and an enthusiastic financial supporter of the Mattachine Society, though privately, preferring to be known by the initial "R". Hay showed Gernreich The Call,[52] a document outlining his plan for a gay support organization, and Gernreich told him, "You know that I'm an Austrian refugee. 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