Fearless Fashion
The Rudi Gernreich exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum is a must-see LGBTQ NEWS, VIEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT | Vol. 32, #7 | Issue 739 | April 2021 | COMPLIMENTARY
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LGBTQ NEWS, VIEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT PUBLISHER: Aequalitas Media EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Amy Young CONTRIBUTORS: Jonmaesha Beltran Kimberly Blaker Grace Bolyard Stefan Contreras Niki D'Andrea Jenna Duncan Buddy Early Michelle Talsma Everson Endia Fontanez
Jason Keil Jason Kron Jeff Kronenfeld Megan Lane Laura Latzko Sydney Lee Logan Lowrey-Rasmussen Anika Nayak David-Elijah Nahmod
Timothy Rawles Tom Reardon Terri Schlichenmeyer Carly Schorman Anika Nayak Sojas Wagle Velvet Wahl
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ON THE COVER Dancer Serena Richardson in a costume designed by Rudi Gernreich for the Lewitzky Dance Company’s Inscape production, 1976. Photograph © Daniel Esgro.
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Rudi Gernreich holding bolts of fabric, 1966. Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark.
ensembles from his collections. There are ten custom 3D-printed mannequins with flat feet throughout the exhibition that model the clothes based on pictures of his models. There is a section on everything from Gernreich’s support of feminism by creating pantsuits for women and mod dresses to his unisex collection that stripped clothing of any gender markers. “So much of the exhibition is all about gender neutrality and basic rights across the board regardless of gender, religion, preferences, the end. Just a really great, basic fundamental love of humans,” Jean said. “So, I think that’s going to resonate with people right now since there is so much conversation out in open discussion about gendered dressing.” One piece that Jean is excited about is an ivory-colored pantsuit from a 1964 collection that was to be presented at the Coty American Fashion Awards. “They would not allow this pantsuit to walk the runway because, I mean, a woman in pants, oh my god. Our brains are going to explode. Unbelievable,” Jean told Echo. The ensemble was named after Marlene Dietrich because she was well known for wearing pants when it was still unacceptable for women to wear them.
Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich at Phoenix Art Museum By Velvet Wahl
F
ashion designer Rudi Gernreich revolutionized the fashion industry with innovative designs that challenged the status quo in the 1960s and ‘70s. He pioneered several fashion staples like the thong and the pantsuit for women, and he wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries of acceptable fashion in his time. As a young man, Gernreich fled Nazi Germany in 1938 to avoid persecution as a Viennese Jew. At the age of 16, he landed in Los Angeles with his mother and found a community where he could flourish. Gernreich’s work as a fashion designer was informed by his early experiences of discrimination, and he fought for equality among genders and for gay rights. His work as an activist is highlighted in the Fearless Fashion exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum. The museum is excited to share Gernreich’s message with the Phoenix community through his fashion designs. “We’re connected through what we wear, and we tell the world how we feel every day by what we wear. It’s such a powerful tool. And the way that he saw dressing, there was so much joy,” Helen Jean, the Jacquie Dorrance
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curator of fashion design for the Phoenix Art Museum, said. “And I think the color that he uses really expresses that. He really expressed the joy of dressing.” The exhibition, which originated at the Skirball Cultural Center, will open at the museum on April 7. Skirball is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles that is “a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality,” according to the Skirball website. The exhibition highlights Gernreich’s fashion designs “through the lens of social justice and social conscience,” Dani Killam, co-curator of the exhibition at Skirball, said. “In putting together the exhibition, we certainly wanted to focus on his role in gay rights, we wanted to focus on his role in gender equality, and we wanted to focus on his role within the conversation of body positivity and inclusivity of different body ideals,” Killam said. The exhibition is broken down into seven sections, including Gernreich’s history and background, and showcases over 80
“That’s really significant because Marlene is one of the people that we credit as pioneering wearing pants out in public in the 1930s and ’40s. She was wearing silk pajama pants and beach loungewear out in public, she and Katharine Hepburn,” Jean said. “So, there’s just some really interesting connections that I think are wonderful between these designers and the things that they explore.” Gernreich created clothes for women that were comfortable. He played with new materials and took out hard-ribbing in garments like bras and swimsuits. He focused on celebrating the human body instead of sexualizing the human body. One of his most famous pieces, the “monokini,” a bikini with no top, pushed for the acceptance of breasts as a non-sexual part of the body. “I think Rudi used his platform to advocate for the power of dress and the power of presenting yourself in this world and doing it in your way and doing it at the beat of your own drum,” Killam said. “So, I hope that people walk away from this exhibition, embracing their personal, unique identities and how beautiful that is when we all just listen to that interior voice and not try to fit into whatever is being dictated to us.” Many of his fashion designs were heavily influenced by his background as a dancer for the Lester Horton Dance Theater, which he joined after arriving in Los Angeles. He wanted people to wear clothing that would allow them to move freely while also accentuating the body. He later went on FEATURE
to design costumes for the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. “The way that Rudi cut his garments relied heavily on the natural form of the human body, which was really a different silhouette of the period because it was all about missile bras and girdles at the time, which is very pointed and angular and the human body is curved and round,” Jean said. Gernreich also used shapes to accentuate different parts of the body. He created a trompe l’oeil jumpsuit that placed polka dots over women’s breasts and black where undergarments are located. “It’s basically reveal-and-conceal, showing the body without showing the body. It’s very fun, and I think people are going to enjoy it,” Jean said. Gernreich used his fashion to make political statements, with one of his most famous collections being the “back to school” collection. The collection took on a militaristic style and was Rudi’s way of protesting the Vietnam War. He released the collection shortly after the Kent State University shootings, where four students were shot and killed by the National Guard during a protest against the Vietnam War. “A lot of the people around him urged him not to show the collection at that time because it was too soon after Kent State, but Rudi wanted people to see his message
and that he felt very strongly that the United States should not be involved in the Vietnam War,” Killam said. “And in fact, he actually went above and beyond and put guns in the hands of his models as they walked the runway.” In his personal life, Gernreich also advocated for gay rights and was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the first national gay rights organizations in the United States. Gernreich kept his involvement in the society a secret during his lifetime, and the exhibition highlights his role in the organization. “The other thing that we really just wanted to focus on was getting his story out through people who knew him. So, we created original oral histories, interviewing colleagues of his, models of his, friends of his,” Killam said. “We wanted to highlight this side of Rudi, that was an advocate for the underdog and tell that story through the voices of the individuals who knew him well.” Model Barbara Floyd recounted how Gernreich didn’t force the models to look a certain way or act a certain way, Killam said. Reneé Holt, another model interviewed, talked about her experience working with Gernreich. “It was just amazing to hear how she was a model at the time, was about to get out of the industry because of all of the double standards
and just the ugly underbelly of the industry and then met this man, Rudi Gernreich, who just had this, she said, a beautiful message about positivity in this world and how our common humanity should bring us together. Her, at that moment, really embodied what Rudi was all about,” Killam said. Gernreich’s influence on the world of fashion is timeless and just as powerful as his important messages about body positivity and equality. “I think Rudi’s story is certainly important to this moment — just to remind ourselves that we’ve been here before, and there are voices within our world, like Rudi’s of his day, that speak to the moment,” Killam said. “It’s always a nice reminder to look back in time and to see those who’ve come before us and lead the way when it comes to ideals such as inclusivity and equality.” The exhibition is socially-distanced and guests are expected to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines. Visit phxart.org for further information. Velvet Wahl is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She has a passion for writing and editing, and a background in news reporting, coding and social media.
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