A MARRIAGE BETWEEN ETHICS AND AESTHETHICS THAT DEFINDED THE SHAPE AND VALUES OF AMERICAN FASHION “PREVIOUS HISTORICAL PERIODS ALWAYS RECUR IN FASHION. HISTORY MUST BE USED, NOT JUST RESTORED.”
Rudi Gernreich 1968 “HE INTRODUCED THE VOCABULARY OF MODERNITY IN CLOTHES, MATERIAL AND SPIRIT THAT FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED THE FACE OF FASHION. EVERYONE OWES HIM SOMETHING – EVEN TODAY.”
Helmut Lang September 2014 RUDI GERNREICH garment label 1969 PIONEER AND VISIONARY
INDEX
1 FUTURIST 2 INTELLIGENCE 3 NEW FRONTIERS 4 RUDI GERNREICH 1922 -1985 5 COLOR BLOCKING 6 PRINTS MIX. STYLE CHAOS 7 HEAD-TO-TOE FASHION 8 THE TOTAL LOOK 9 MATERIALISTIC 10 THE THONG 11 THE NO-BRA BRA 13 NOTHING! 16 TIME GENTLEMAN 17 RUDI MADE THE NEWS 18 DESIGN ETHOS 19 THE LEGACY OF RUDI GERNREICH 20 RUDI WAS RIGHT 22 THE ZEITGEIST 23 HISTORY
1
THE FATHER OF FUNCTIONAL MINIMALISM FUTURIST
“HIS DESIGNS WERE FICTITIOUS FANTASY NOT BORROWED FROM THE PAST LIKE MOST ART. HE BORROWED FROM THE FUTURE IF THAT IS POSSIBLE.”
Edward Ruscha 2000
MICHAEL KORS ALEXANDER WANG BALMAIN Spring-Summer 2010 Spring-Summer 2013 Spring-Summer 2015
Resort 1968. Wool-knit shift dresses with sheer vinyl inserts Both dresses made the cover of TIME magazine, see chapter 13 2 INTELLIGENT THE GUARDIAN OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN
BARBRA STREISAND’S first fashion shoot for the cover of SHOW magazine Fall 1964 Black-and-white herringbone tweed coat lined in imitation lamb’s fleece and matching dress 3
NEW FRONTIERS
Rudi took contemporary clothing and turned it THE into exhilarating fashion for the next 40 years. PIONEER OF CONCEPTUAL FASHION
Reversible wool houndstooth cape in shades Camel aviator jumpsuit with reversible coat Two camel-hair coats that reverse to black. of beige and brown Fall 1964 Fall 1964 Fall 1965
Plastic armor designed for a MAX FACTOR ALEXANDER MCQUEEN campaign. “Futura” line featuring protective gear Spring-Summer 2015 worn over a soft metallic bodysuit for anonymity and “private-privacy” 1973
Double Exposure kids of DADA MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA Wool-knit unisex jumpsuits worn with 1970 Fall-Winter 2012 matching wigs, watches and boots 1970 4
RUDI GERNREICH 1922 -1985
THE LEGACY OF RUDI GERNREICH DOES NOT FADE
The Rudi Gernreich Studio Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood 1969 5 US Vogue March 2011 Lady Gaga in LOUIS VUITTON
Black dress and shirt by GEORGE BEZHANISHVILI, tights WOLFORD COLOR BLOCKING hommage to Rudi Gernreich
GIVENCHY ad campaign Fall-Winter 2010-11 RUDI PAVED THE
Long matt jersey T-shirt dress with hot pink inserts on one sleeve Spring-Summer 1972
Color block wool-knit tunic over shorts Fall 1971
Long matt jersey T-shirt dress WAY Spring-Summer 1972 6 PRINTS MIX. STYLE CHAOS
FOR THE FIRST TIME, A PLAY IN FASHION WITH GRAPHIC KNITS.
Grey-and-white Black-and-white wool knit trompe l’oeil dress 1971 wool knit trompe l’oeil dress 1971
VALENTINO GARETH PUGH MARC JACOBS Fall-Winter 2015 Spring-Summer 2007 Spring-Summer 2013 ‘Goya Lady’ Three-tiered wool-knit dress with matching Black cut-velvet on chiffon. From BASIC BLACK, stockings in off-white, grey and black. William Claxton’s fashion film on Rudi Gernreich, 1965 1966 7
HEAD-TO-TOE FASHION
THE TOTAL LOOK
Three-piece black-and-whitewool-knit First wool-knit outfit with matching stockings in multichecked pantsuit navy and oyster worn with poison green shoes ALEXANDER McQUEEN Fall 1971 Fall 1964 VOGUE Italy July 2009 Peggy Moffitt, Leon Bing and Ellen Harth in the making of BASIC BLACK. Sten- cilled calfskin coats and suits worn with matching dresses, tights, underpants and 8 bras. The clothing in the film won Rudi Gernreich his second Coty Award.
THE TOTAL LOOK The Coty American Fashion Critics’ Awards were awarded between 1943 and 1984.Among the recipients are Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Halston, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta.
AZZEDINE ALAIA Fall-Winter 1991
BURBERRY PRORSUM Fall-Winter 2013
DOLCE & GABBANA Black-and-white typeface dress and matching tights Fall-Winter 2011 with silk signature scarf Fall 1968 DKNY Fall-Winter 2011 9
MATERIALISTIC
Peggy Moffitt, Lydia Fields & Léon Bing wear Wool-knit swimsuit with vinyl boots Rudi Gernreich tank-tops and sun visors BALENCIAGA Boots by CAPEZIO AND PERSPEX VISOR by LAYNE NIELSON Vogue China Resort 1965 Resort 1965 Spring-Summer 2017 NEW MATERIALS. VINYL. PVC. PLASTIC. HARDWARE. THEY BECAME FASHION
Black ciré pantsuit with lacquered chiffon shirt VOGUE Paris W MAGAZINE October 2006 Fall 1964 Paul Smith vinyl cape and belt August 2010 10
THE THONG!
THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE THONG
Lisa Taylor & Jerry Hall, American Vogue by HELMUT NEWTON 1975 11
THE NO-BRA BRA!
THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE NO-BRA BRA 12
THE NO-BRA BRA!
The No Bra-Bra The “All-In-None Bra” 1965 1965 13
NOTHING!
The “No-Bra Bra” advertisements 1965
YASMINE ESLAMI LINGERIE `Kallisti´ by MARIOS SCHWAB KOSTAS MURKUDIS Paris 2015 Spring 2013 Spring-Summer 2011 14
NOTHING!
THE TOPLESS LOOK, CUT-OUTS AND THAT SWIMSUIT
The MONOKINI swimsuit design that instantly became world-famous 1964 15
NOTHING!
Black wool-knit swimsuit with patent leather belt Resort 1968
ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER CUT OUT Spring-Summer 2013
MICHAEL KORS Spring Summer 2010
One-piece with pvc panels 1968
VERUSCHKA by Franco Rubartelli 1968
AGENT PROVOCATEUR 2012
One-piece wool-knit ROUAULT swimsuit Resort 1971 16
TIME GENTLEMAN
“THE MOST WAY-OUT, FAR-AHEAD DESIGNER”
TIME Magazine 1967
RUDI GERNREICH lived in Los Angeles, a parallel dimension to that of the New Look, the couture salons and the girls of the Rive Gauche. Because of this, the fashion establishment chose to ignore his genius. RUDI GERNREICH is one of the very few fashion designers to ever front the cover of TIME magazine, ranking along side visionaries such as ELSA SCHIAPARELLI, CHRISTIAN TIME Magazine Cover 1967
DIOR and GIORGIO ARMANI. He brought together conceptual fashion and mass media for the first time 17
RUDI MADE THE NEWS
“HIS TALENT WAS OVERLOOKED BECAUSE OF THE HEADLINES. BUT RUDI DESIGNED ALMOST EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE DESIGNED FOR MODERN PEOPLE.”
Peggy Moffitt 18
DESIGN ETHOS
“I CONSIDER DESIGNING
RUDI at work in Los Angeles TODAY MORE A 1966 MATTER OF EDITING THAN DESIGNING.” said RUDI GERNREICH at the end of his career.
By then, he had designed practically everything that matters in women’s fashion. 19
THE LEGACY OF RUDI GERNREICH
AN UNTAPPED HERITAGE OF INFINITE POTENTIAL. ONE OF THE WORLD´S RICHEST ARCHIVES. A CULT BRAND THAT IS TODAY MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER BEFORE.
VOGUE Paris October 2004 The “PEGGY MOFFITT CAPSULE COLLECTION” by Comme des Garcons
Vogue Italia 2015
MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA Bodysuit 2011
MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA + H&M Collaboration 2012
One-piece red & black wool-knit trompe l’oeil swimsuit Spring-Summer 1972 Vinyl decals and bikini ANTHONY VACCARELLO 1966 Vogue Paris Spring-Summer 2015
VERSACE campaign Fall-Winter 2011-2012 20
RUDI WAS RIGHT
RUDI WAS RIGHT. HIS PURITY, INTELLIGENCE AND VISION ARE DIRECTIVES FOR A NEW WORLD AND ENDLESS SOURCE FOR REINTERPRETATIONS.
“Chicago” charcoal flannel tunic over matching skirt Autumn 1963 Red, black and white knit maxidress Fall 1967
JIL SANDER Spring-Summer 2011 21
RUDI WAS RIGHT
US Vogue CALVIN KLEIN Collection worn by actress Rooney Mara, November 2011
Black matt jersey dress with sculptured aluminim jewelery Donna Karan and Robert Lee Morris Spring 1975 2003 22
THE ZEITGEIST
RUDI GERNREICH USED THE THEATER, OPERA AND THE ARTS TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF FASHION.
Design for BELLA LEWITSKY’s `Inscape ballet Design for BELLA LEWITSKY’s `Inscape ballet 1976 1976 23 HISTORY
America’s best-kept fashion secret Rudi Gernreich body as object of the male gaze but in liberating it changed the course and vocabulary of fashion from the binding, structured garments that had until forever. By the 1970’s the Austrian émigrés’ then been the accepted norm of fashion. influence on perceptions of freedom and the body had gained him the cover of Time magazine and His strikingly lean, fluid and bold designs ushered in established him as a household name. From Helmut an era of unprecedented body-consciousness earning Lang to Celine his influence has been deep and him a reputation as both a pervert and a prophet. He enduring. At the same time his legacy has been left was the leader in figure in the advancing awareness largely untended. of a form that renounced decadence and expense and followed function and comfort. He made A true visionary Rudi was perhaps the first American knitwear into streetwear and celebrated the freedom designer to orchestrate and encapsulate the very of movement and exposure with the body-suit, essence of simplicity and modernism in fashion. the monokini and the smooth line of tights under His pure and functional design ethos continues to clothes. His invention of the thong, the see-through influence the world’s greatest designers and his tops, the “no-bra”-bra, designer jeans and the mini intelligent and highly conceptual approach still feeds skirt all contributed to keep him at the forefront of fashion to this day. Just as Coco Chanel’s European fashion innovation while laying the groundwork for couture shaped the way of dressing for the early what would later become the unisex look. part of the twentieth century so Rudi’s provocative simplicity formed the foundation of the latter half A key part of the wave of innovative Sixties futurists presaging as it did just about every major tendency - a group that included Emilio Pucci, André – from underwear, sportswear to streetwear – that Courregès, Pierre Cardin, Mary Quant and Paco are the markers of our times. Rabanne - Rudi’s unmistakably individual approach to fashion brought style and humor to the serious Rudi was a designer extraordinaire; a fashion rebel business of dressing women. Mixing fashion with and forerunner of world trends that broke many of contemporary art and design his multidisciplinary the rules and laid out an almost perfect vision of approach gave birth to an era of collaboration. the future: sex, style, fun, color, and freedom. He Boundaries were constantly crossed and his idea was hailed as the ‘Pop Space Innovator’ and the of clothes expanded through artistic collaboration. ‘Iconoclast’ of his time and despite his decidedly His designs were the indelible heart of images by anti-fashion stance, he was to become one of the Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, David Bailey most original, revolutionary and disputed designers and while his influence and company was kept in fashion history. with the likes of artists such as Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell and Andy Warhol, actors and celebrities such A background in dance and costume design for over as Barbara Streisand, Carol Channing and Dennis three decades served him in his quest to push the Hopper and with industry giants such as Diana boundaries of style and wearability. Less interested Vreeland, Baron Wolman, Helen Gurley and Vidal in detail and decoration, Rudi appreciated nudity, Sasson. More than a fashion brand, Rudi was a idealized the healthy body and was obsessed prism through which the greatest talents of his day with how clothes looked in motion. Prior to his were refracted. emergence within the LA fashion scene designers rarely factored the female body into their designs. Rudi’s interest was never in exploiting the female
“WE’VE SEEN OUR PROBLEMS. NOW LET’S SOLVE THEM. EVERYWHERE.” HISTORY
RUDI GERNREICH’s philosophy fits perfectly in Society aimed at protecting and improving the the current zeitgeist. A pioneer in media savvy he rights of homosexuals, his advocation of the causes used design as a form of social commentary. Variously of civil liberty included a long-standing association branded as the ‘pre-Punk creator of fashion’ who with the ACLU. By giving the youth a means of self- designed for everyone he was also one of fashion’s expression, he actively contributed to freedom not most notorious headline-makers and provocateurs: just of the body but also the spirit. His credo was Censured by the pope as an ‘enemy of the church’ that elegance is in the person, not in the clothes. and christened by Life Magazine the ‘Bolivar of the Rudi’s credo was able to create a harmonious and Bosom’, at various times his clothes were denounced lasting balance, a marriage between the ethical and by the governments of France, Russia, China and the aesthetic. His clear and unmistakable message Greece. A founding member of the Mattachine to the world was:
“WHENEVER, WHEREVER, WHATEVER, THE BOTTOM LINE IS ALWAYS HUMAN FREEDOM” 24
THE REBIRTH OF RUDI GERNREICH RUDI 2021
RUDI GERNREICH and Léon Bing Military-Look 1970 rudigernreich.com [email protected] instagram.com/rudigernreich
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