Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine. Despite not being an instantly recognisable name, Rudi’s designs are known all over the world. Art Museum (602) 257-1880. [email protected]. The “George Sand” ensemble consists of a jacket, vest, blouse, pants and skirt in brown textured velvet (Figure 4). Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark. If you anywhere near Los Angeles, don't miss it. Gernreich was born in Vienna, Austria, and moved to Los Angeles with his mother at age sixteen, running away from the anti-Semitic persecution propelled by the Nazi regime. Printed cotton plain weave. It comprises handwritten letters, telegrams, clippings, drawings, and other ephemera, offering an interesting glimpse into Gernreich’s life, and conveying his political involvement in civil rights movements. On the walls, quotes by Gernreich frame and introduce each of these sections. As these videos were intended for individual viewing, having control over their reproduction would have enhanced the experience. Figure 5 “Swimsuits & Undergarments” section. Rudi Gernreich is an icon without whom fashion would look very different today. Courtesy of Skirball Cultural Center. Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich . Gernreich, a Viennese Jew, immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1938, fleeing the … Rudi Gernreich with Peggy Moffitt modeling the “Marlene Dietrich” pantsuit, 1964. Rudi Gernreich: Fearless Fashion Renegade and Los Angeles Icon Gernreich’s designs -- clothes that come from a place of meaning, with a radically hopeful view of the future -- are the perfect antidote to the increasingly nihilistic contemporary runways. Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark. These garments are displayed together with brochures about the Men for the Equal Rights Amendment movement of 1972, showing the designers’ support for the feminist movement. “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich” runs through September 1, 2019. It presents visitors with the possibility of a fast pan or a longer, more engaging experience. He founded the gay rights Mattachine Society in 1950, with Harry Hay. Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich at Phoenix Art Museum By Velvet Wahl F ashion designer Rudi Gernreich revolutionized the fashion industry with … 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. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1664527?scroll=top&needAccess=true, Dramatiska och utmattande: Nio månader av Corona-nyheter i sociala medier. The curators presented a full overview of Gernreich’s work, breaking away from just being the creator of the monokini. Fearless Fashion is organized into seven sections that, together, chronicle Gernreich’s rise to prominence and underscore how his designs revolutionized the understanding of beauty in the fashion industry. Figure 10 “Experimenting with Fashion and Legacy” section. Two of these caftans were designed for the Brooklyn-based company Harmon Knitwear, a fashion brand Gernreich collaborated with throughout the 1960s and 1970s. For those willing to learn more, engaging with audiovisual content and reading the archival material selected for each section can keep visitors entertained for hours. Rudi Gernreich papers (Collection 1702). While at the museum, definitely check out their museum store. Currently at the Skirball Cultural Center Museum, there is an amazingly beautiful exhibit titled Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich displaying the work of this talented and daring Austrian-born American fashion designer. The 1966 words of Rudi Gernreich summarize his interest in fashion not merely as a commercial product but more importantly, as a force to open discussions about social change: “I’m totally unconcerned with skirt lengths. Courtesy of the Skirball Cultural Center. Caftan, 1970. Abstract. The white “swan” leotard and red “Duotard” frame the scene and introduce the second section, “Dance & Theatre.” Gernreich’s interest in freedom and movement through the costumes is put forward in his designs for Bella Lewitzky’s Dance Company performance of Inscape. Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is a transdisciplinary scholar working in the intersections of fashion, media, and cinema studies with a business lens. The combination of garments, information, audiovisual outputs, and archival material is compelling. “Fashion, as we know it, is dead,” the Austrian-born American designer Rudi Gernreich proclaimed in 1971. “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich offers a significant opportunity to explore how fashion has the power to effect social change,” says Tim Rodgers, PhD, the Sybil Harrington director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum . Figure 6 Peggy Moffitt modeling the topless swimsuit designed by Rudi Gernreich, 1964. Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is a transdisciplinary scholar working in the intersections of fashion, media, and cinema studies with a business lens. Figure 7 Concept to Rack section with photo-op for visitors. Rudolph “Rudi” Gernreich was one of the most prominent fashion designers of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Rudi Gernreich was an early pioneer in the gay rights movement and a trailblazing fashion designer who embraced gender fluidity in the 1960s. These mannequins are placed in dramatic poses, emulating the dancers’ moves to illustrate Gernreich’s interest in creating garments that become one with the body. Note. Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich presents more than 80 gender-fluid, body-positive designs by a ’60s-mod legend who revolutionized perceptions of beauty, gender, and identity. The exhibition succeeds in presenting Rudi Gernreich as a social activist rather than merely a fashion designer. A black and white image covers the wall showing a crowd of models wearing his geometric designs (Figure 11). The installation consists of seven sections that are organized chronologically and thematically. Unisex ensemble by Gernreich for Harmon Knitwear, 1970. Figure 8 Frontal runway view. Healing Arizona Veterans to fund treatment of Vets with Traumatic Brain Injury Posted 14 hours ago; Flinn Foundation Selects 20 Excelling Arizona Students as 2021 Flinn Scholars Posted 14 hours ago; Arizona Gives Day Generates Record $7.1M for Nonprofits Posted 2 days ago; Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center Expanding to Scottsdale Posted 1 week ago Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum. Figure 9 (Left) Rudi Gernreich for Harmon Knitwear. Caftan, c.1973. Fearless Fashion is the title of the exhibition that explores the life and career of fashion designer Rudi Gernreich (1922–1985). The military outfit, consisting of shorts and an army shirt/minidress with large pockets and belt in camel, was accessorized with military tags and a machine gun, to protest the Vietnam war. Courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum. Available from: 2019-09-19 Created: 2019-09-19 Last updated: 2019-11-14 Bibliographically approved Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA. While the interactive wall is ingenious, and the idea of conveying off-the-rack through the hangers gives the illusion of entering an open closet, the displayed garments cannot be fully appreciated, as a line on the floor marks where visitors can stand to refrain them from touching the pieces. Shop items inspired by the fashion-forward looks of Rudi Gernreich as seen in the exhibition Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich. The chance to visit the other ongoing exhibitions provides a broader historical panning of the United States during the most active years of his career and a glimpse into an era filled with social activism. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. 1625 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004. This exhibition attempts to exalt this symbiosis of art and political activism by focusing on the social and cultural impact of Gernreich’s work and political agenda. Photo credit: Danny Moloshok, courtesy of the Skirball Cultural Center. Registered in England & Wales No. Continuing towards the third section of the exhibition, visitors discover that the black panel behind the three circular platforms hides a catwalk for “The Minis, Mods & Pantsuits” display that presents Gernreich’s support for second-wave feminism and equal rights. The exhibit succeeds in making this point. It was curated by Bethany Montagano, assistant curator Dani Killan with fashion designer and creative adviser Humberto Leon. His revolutionary designs and avant-garde collections embodied his vision of fashion as a liberating force that defied conventional ideas of beauty, identity and gender. Figure 11 Rudi Gernreich fashions at the Wiltern, 1985. Photo credit: Danny Moloshok. The museum’s press release emphasizes that Gernreich’s iconic monokini catapulted him into celebrity through the controversy it created. Upon the designer’s death in 1985, his partner of more than three decades established the ACLU Rudi Gernreich-Oreste Pucciani Endowment Fund to support the fight for LGBT rights. The installation consists of seven sections that are organized chronologically and thematically. Interestingly, there are other ongoing exhibitions at the Skirball Cultural Center that complement the one on Gernreich: Spotlight: Andy Warhol and Black is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite. “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich” touches upon several issues about gender and race that have come to the public forefront in recent years. Collection of Peggy Moffitt. Caftan, 1970. Walking around the gallery, visitors see Gernreich’s childhood drawings, family albums, official immigration documents, and other memorabilia registering his family’s journey to Los Angeles. FEARLESS FASHION: RUDI GERNREICH. On view at Phoenix Art Museum April 7, 2021 - September 26, 2021 This fostered an amalgamation of industry, arts, and politics not only in the fashion front but also in many other cultural industries. Figure 1 “Fearless Fashion,” photo by Larry Sandez, courtesy of the Skirball Cultural Center. APR 7. Returning to the runway and following the imaginary pathway leads to the section “Youth Culture & Politics,” (Figure 8) displaying his designs that were produced in reaction to protests during the 1970s, and that addressed the racial tensions and armed conflicts. FEARLESS FASHION: RUDI GERNREICH April 7 - september 26, 2021 STEELE GALLERY. ‘Fearless Fashion’ Gernreich’s life and fashions will be on display at The Skirball Cultural Center in “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Genreich.” For Gernreich, they were his core concerns and he used fashion as a vehicle for expression. Becoming Rudi Gernreich follows the designer from his childhood in Vienna through his immigration to the United States in 1938. (Right) Rudi Gernreich for Harmon Knitwear. Items from Gernreich’s ready-to-wear collections for the retail chain Montgomery Ward and LA’s Jax Boutique during the 1960s and 1970s are hung on two racks, while others are displayed on mannequins, showing that not all of his designs were conceptual but also adapted for commercial casual wear. On view from May 9 through September 1, 2019, Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich will feature more than eighty ensembles—including the topless swimsuit, the thong, unisex clothing, and pantsuits for women—that earned Gernreich worldwide acclaim. Text panels frame an entrance that opens onto a room featuring three circular platforms in the center, each displaying one garment. The monokini, a topless swimsuit created in 1964, was said to signal the end of morality in the US and is shown in “Swimsuits & Undergarments” (Figures 5–6). SEP 26. The exhibit links past and present, showing that some issues remain unresolved and highlighting Gernreich’s social commentary through fashion that remains current and relevant today. Gernreich was a dancer with the Lester Horton Dance Theater (1942 to 1948) who also designed costumes for Horton. Exiting the exhibition, visitors get a last peek into Gernreich’s ideas. This is standard practice for shared projections or shorter clips. As its name indicates, the “Duotard” is designed for two bodies, joined by the hips and one inside leg. To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy. Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich is organized and circulated by … Hide Map. Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA May 9, 2019—Septermber 1, 2019. Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich features more than eighty ensembles - including the monokini, the thong, unisex clothing, alongside original sketches and drawings, letters and personal papers, photographs of his family, friends, and colleagues. On view at Phoenix Art Museum April 7, 2021 - September 26, 2021 This is a homage to French Novelist Lucile Aurore Duping (1804–1876), who assumed a male pseudonym to pursue her career as a writer. Exhibition Review: Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 9th May 2019–1st September 2019. The retrospective, “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich,” is at the Skirball Cultural Center through Sept. 1. Despite showing ready-to-wear collections and collaborations with local stores, the section lacks information about these garments’ impact on consumer culture. Fearless Fashion is the title of the exhibition that explores the life and career of fashion designer Rudi Gernreich (1922–1985). Photos: Robert Wedemeyer. The final “Experimental Fashion & Legacy” section was the weakest section insofar as Gernreich—as well as many other of his contemporary designers—have done more groundbreaking work with unconventional materials than the ones displayed. Fig. an Austrian-born American fashion designer whose avant-garde Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich. "Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich" is currently on view at the Skirball Cultural Center, and it's well worth taking in. The tumultuous landscape of the 1960s and 1970s provided a fertile ground for younger generations to manifest against the impositions of the establishment. Therefore, it is unclear as to what extent Gernreich’s work was fetishized by a circle of connoisseurs or widely picked by consumers. However, in attempting to portray him as a revolutionary activist to a celebratory extent, curators have detached his work from a broader historical context. The third caftan on display was designed for Moffitt’s son (Figure 9), who appears in one of the videos recalling his experience as a kid running around in a dress, unaware of cultural prejudices regarding clothes and gender. The final section, “Experimental Fashion & Legacy,” focuses on Gernreich’s innovative use of zippers and dog leashes as accessories – yet unrelated to a contemporary Punk aesthetics (Figure 10). The “Marlene Dietrich” ensemble is a champagne satin pantsuit that, according to the information provided, was banned from the runway during the Coty American Fashion Critics’ Awards Fashion Show in 1964, under the premise that American society was not ready for women wearing pants. Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark. The first section of the exhibition, “Becoming Rudi Gernreich,” is a short biography that sets the tone by stating that Gernreich conceived fashion as “a platform for innovative designs that sought to empower those long marginalized or devalued in mainstream American life.” Rather than being a career goal, the grandiosity of this claim showcases Gernreich’s intention to direct attention to matters less superfluous than fashion. Photo credit: Danny Moloshok, courtesy of the Skirball Cultural Center. Wed 10:00 AM. One of the strengths of the exhibition is the integration of a vast amount of archival material loaned from the Charles E. Young Library at UCLA. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer. In the era of fake news and mediated social interactions, we cannot let the allure of fashion distract us from significant matters. However, the low placement of the video screens makes it uncomfortable for watching five-minute long clips. ticket. Figure 3 Central runway in the gallery with projection of a fashion show. Overall, the exhibition is well worth visiting, due to the attractive balance between oral history, garments, ephemera, and the visual display. Get Directions. The “Claxton Dress,” a black and white maxi-dress (1971) used for the exhibit’s promotion is front and center (Figures 1–2). We use cookies to improve your website experience. Phoenix Art Museum. Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich. Photo by Larry Sandez. This is accomplished through the combined presentation of garments and ephemera. Don't miss. The panel serves as a screen on which a runway show is projected in a loop (Figure 3). Now 80 of his risqué and avant-garde outfits have gone on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in an exhibition opening Thursday, May 9, entitled “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich.” Peggy Moffitt modeling the topless swimsuit designed by Rudi Gernreich, 1964. It was curated by Bethany Montagano, assistant curator Dani Killan with fashion designer and creative adviser Humberto Leon. Sun 10:00 AM. Two ensembles stand out as an homage to the women who challenged the gender status quo, during the 1830s and the 1930s. He started his career as a dancer in the Lester Horton Dance Theatre, and soon transitioned into costume and fashion design, working for Edith Head, Adrian, and Hattie Carnegie until he launched his collection in 1948 with manufacturer Walter Bass. Show Map. The section showcases two black knitted leotards and three caftans. (Center) Rudi Gernreich. Gernreich’s use of vibrant colors and designs allow for immediate visual gratification for a quick walkthrough. One of the walls is installed like a contact sheet with Peggy Moffitt, Gernreich’s favorite model and muse, and features a large white square for visitors to take their own “contact” pictures (Figure 7). People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. They offer lots of fabulous fair trade Judaica including Dunitz kippot. She received a doctoral degree in Fashion Studies from Stockholm University, an MA in Cinema Studies ... Castaldo Lundén, E. (2020). Wool knit. Figure 4 Peggy Moffitt modeling George Sand pantsuit designed by Rudi Gernreich, Fall 1967 collection. The disposition, selection, and presentation of the exhibition are well accomplished, easy to follow, and entertaining. Gernreich envisioned an era in which designers would become technicians, engineers able to spray clothing onto the body (Palomo-Lovinski 2010, 120). By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. This section also displays two highlights of his career as a swimwear and futuristic designer. The photo-op wall featuring Moffitt’s contact sheet could be set apart, in a way that allows people to play with it without blocking the path for those who are contemplating the mannequins. Even though the main driving force throughout the exhibition is his social activism, the decision to include a section that directly addresses his commercial side calls for further contextualization. Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 9th May 2019–1st September 2019, Register to receive personalised research and resources by email, https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2019.1664527. Clothes can’t be pretty little things.”. Exhibition Review: Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 9th May 2019–1st September 2019.