Biography
Born in Vienna, Austria, Gernreich fled the country at age 16 due to Nazism, and later migrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California. A dancer, he performed with the Lester Horton company around 1945.
Gernreich moved into fashion design via fabric design, and then worked closely with model Peggy Moffitt and photographer William Claxton, pushing the boundaries of "the futuristic look" in clothing over three decades. An exhibition of his work at the Phoenix Art Museum, in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2003 hailed him as one of the most original, prophetic and controversial American designers of the 1950s through the 1970s.
Gernreich is perhaps most noted for his design of the first topless swimsuit, or monokini, as well as the pubikini – a bikini with a window in front to reveal the woman's pubic hair – and later the thong swimsuit. He was a strong advocate of unisex clothing, dressing male and female models in identical clothing and shaving their heads and bodies completely bald. He was noted for the use of vinyl and plastic in clothes, and he designed the Moonbase Alpha uniforms on the British science-fiction television series Space: 1999 (1975–1977).
In the 1960s, Gernreich created the "No-Bra", which was manufactured by Lily of France. It was made of sheer stretch fabric without underwires or lining of any kind; its one metal clip fastened the bra in front. He also designed Warner's 1972 "No-Bra Bra", which was made of sheer, stretchy fabric; had no metal wires or clips, and was pulled on over the head. It gave trendy women something they could buy from the bra manufacturers, but it was designed for women who had already stopped buying the industry's products. Like his trendy see-through blouses and transparent underwear, Gernreich's bras created a brief stir and then quietly disappeared.
In the U.S., Gernreich was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, the country's first sustained homophile organization. Gernreich supported the organization financially, but did not lend his name to the group, preferring to be known by the initial "R". Another co-founder, Harry Hay, was Gernreich's lover from 1950 until 1952, when Gernreich ended the relationship.
Later in life, Gernreich chose to devote himself to gourmet soups. He is credited with a recipe for red-pepper soup, a cold soup served in red-pepper cases and garnished with caviar and lemon.
Read more about this topic: Rudi Gernreich
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