Moving pieces
See fearless fashion of Rudi Gernreich at Phoenix Art Museum
Fashion icon Rudolph Gernreich, also known as Rudi, was a steadfast believer in the idea that gender didn’t matter when it came to style. “Clothes of the future will involve unisex. They will be interchangeable. Men are going to wear skirts and women are going to wear pants, there will be no more squeamishness about nudity,” Gernreich said in the 1971 film “Fashion of the Future.”
Gernreich created many gender-nonconforming designs seen today including the thong, monokini and pantsuits.
More than 80 pieces of Gernreich’s ensembles, original sketches, personal papers, videos and audio are on display in the Phoenix Art Museum exhibition “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich.” The show opened to the public April 7 and will be on view until Sept. 26.
The ‘fearless fashion’ of Rudi Gernreich
“Fearless Fashion is such a timely and important exhibition,” Helen Jean, the museum’s curator of fashion design, said in a press release.
“It underscores Gernreich’s rejection of conventional ideas of identity and his commitment to promoting gender fluidity, body positivity, and the equality and beauty of all people. This inclusive approach to humanism and the desire to empower others to define who they are and who they are not through the clothing they choose to wear is something that will resonate with contemporary audiences, many of whom are still advocating for the same issues and rights that Gernreich also fought for through his work, blazing a trail decades earlier.”
The exhibition is set up in the museum’s Steele Gallery. Guests go on a journey through Gernreich’s life beginning with his immigration to the United States from Vienna in 1938 and going on to his first fashion jobs in Los Angeles. Visitors will also get a behind the scenes look into Gernreich’s design process in the ‘60s and ‘70s and hear stories of the backlash he received for dismantling boundaries.
Gernreich designed clothes for movement
As a former dancer and performing artist, many of Gernreich’s designs were made to move with the body and are on display seemingly in motion. The mannequins wearing the garments re-create images of models wearing his designs in vintage photographs as if the photos were taken today.
The mannequin wearing a multicolor caftan bends into a pile, much like model Peggy Moffitt does in a 1967 photo of the garment. Another figure is bent backward like dancer Serena Richardson posed in the same costume for the Lewitzky Dance Company’s “Inscape” production in 1976.
Many of Gernreich’s designs were made of wool, including his several swimsuits, dresses and miniskirts.
Throughout his career, he used his designs to express that gender didn’t matter and that Gernreich garments were made for anyone who wanted to wear them.
In a 1970s statement on display in the exhibition, he said he sees unisex as “a total statement about the equality of men and women.”