Rudi Gernreich
In Episode # 108 there was a luncheon held to honor the 10 best dressed folks in Gotham City. To present the award, Rudi Gernreich was on hand. It was going well till Catwoman let go a hair raising bomb and ruined the day !
Rudi
Gernreich was
one of the premier designers of American fashions in the 60's. He was
born in born
in Vienna, and
escaped the Nazis by emigrating to the USA in 1938. His greatest
claim to fame came in the swimsuit line where he designed the topless
swim suit that sold 3000 units in one summer. Talk
about Beach Blanket Bingo....... Gernreich
changed the way wome
n
dress. At the beach, the Gernreich unstructured bathing suit is
still the preferred model for one piece suits. Gernreich's design for
a "no bra" bra is still the undergarment of choice for most
women in the Western world. It was a radical departure from the
pointy, torpedo shaped bras that were popular in the '50s and early '60s.
It was a time when Gernreich shocked the fashion world by combining unusual colors such as hot pink with orange, purple with red and blue with green interspersed with dots and stripes. His work, always controversial yet original, would alter the course of fashion for generations to come.
He designed costumes for Lana Turn
er in A Life of Her Own (1950) and Eva Marie Saint in Exodus (1960). Gernreich played himself in 2000 Years Later (1969), for which he also did the costume design.He also designed the costumes for "Space- 1999" TV series.
Some of the "Firsts" credited to Rudi were:
Took inner construction out of bathing suits.
He was a gay rights activist who helped form "The Mattachine Society" in 1950. His long time lover (30 years) was Oreste Pucciani, a famous professor of French at UCLA. Eight years after Gernreich's death in 1985, Pucciani established the Gernreich-Pucciani Endowment Fund for gay and lesbian rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
While doing research, Will Geer, Grandpa Walton came up as another of the group. Hary Hay was the head of the group, heres an excerpt-
His first recruit was one Rudy Gernreich, later to become famous as the creator of the topless bathing suit in the 1960s. Harry Hay was close to more than one celebrity during his formative years. Will Geer, better known as TV's "Grandpa Walton," was Harry's lover in the 1930s. A radical leftist, Geer was the significant influence in the formation of young Hay's political beliefs and activist passions. Hay realized early on the similarities between an oppressed labor force and its exploitative bosses with that of the gay minority and the restrictive, oppressive society that ruthlessly scapegoats gays.
Dang, I sure wish I had never seen that. Ill never see Grandpa in the same light now.........
Anyway back to Rudi .
Even after his death Rudi is still an influence, The Austin Powers costume designer listed him as being an influence in the clothes for Austin and crew. Rudi's creations do look as if they came from the movie.
Rudi died in 1985 at the age of 63.
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