Rudi Gernreich
| Rudi Gernreich | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 8, 1922 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | April 21, 1985 (aged 62) Los Angeles, California |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Alma mater | Los Angeles City College |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Years active | 1950–1985 |
| Known for | Designer of the monokini Avant-garde clothing designs Early supporter of the Mattachine Society |
| Partner(s) |
Harry Hay (1950–52) Oreste Pucciani (1953–1985; Gernreich's death) |
| Parent(s) | Siegmund Gernreich and Elisabeth (née Müller) Gernreich (born February 8, 1883 - died April 23, 1964) |
Rudolf "Rudi" Gernreich (August 8, 1922 – April 21, 1985) was an Austrian-born American fashion designer whose avant-garde clothing designs are generally regarded as the most innovative and dynamic fashion of the 1960s. He purposefully used fashion design as a social statement to advance sexual freedom, producing clothes that followed the natural form of the female body, freeing them from the constraints of high fashion.
He was the first to use cutouts, vinyl, and plastic in clothing. He designed the first thong bathing suit,unisex clothing, the first swimsuit without a built-in bra, the minimalist, soft, transparent No Bra, and the topless monokini. He was a four-time recipient of the Coty American Fashion Critics Award. He produced what is regarded as the first fashion video, Basic Black: William Claxton w/ Peggy Moffitt, in 1966. He had a long, unconventional, and trend-setting career in fashion design.
He was a founding member of and financially supported the early activities of the Mattachine Society. He consciously pushed the boundaries of acceptable fashion and used his designs as an opportunity to comment on social issues and to expand society's perception of what was acceptable.
Gernreich was the only child of Siegmund Gernreich and Elisabeth (née Müller) Gernreich, a Jewish couple who lived in Vienna, Austria. His father was a stocking manufacturer who had served in World War I and who committed suicide when Gernreich was eight years old.
Gernreich learned about high fashion from his aunt, Hedwig Müller, who with her husband Oskar Jellinek, owned a dress shop. He spent many hours in his aunt's shop sketching her designs for Viennese high society and learned about fabrics. He also gained early impressions of sexuality. He later told one of his favorite models, Leon Bing, about images of “leather chaps with a strap running between the buttocks of street laborers’ work pants and the white flesh of women’s thighs above gartered black stockings.” When he was 12, Austrian designer Ladislaus Zcettel saw his sketches and offered Gernreich a fashion apprenticeship in London, but his mother refused, believing her son was too young to leave home.
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