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Collections

Rudi Gernreich
Woman's Swimsuit1958

Not on view
No image
Designer
Rudi Gernreich
Austria, active United States, California, Los Angeles, 1922-1985
Manufacturer
Westwood Knitting Mills
United States, active 20th century
Title
Woman's Swimsuit
Place Made
United States, California
Date Made
1958
Medium
Wool knit
Dimensions
Center back length: 23 in. (58.42 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Walter Bass
Accession Number
CR.220.62-2
Classification
Costumes
Collecting Area
Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes

As a boy in Vienna, Rudi Gernreich spent countless hours sketching high fashion in his aunt’s dress shop. In California, following a career in dance, he based his fashion designs on the beauty of the body in motion. Renouncing garment construction methods of the 1950s that sculpted the female body into an idealized hourglass silhouette, Gernreich used wool knits to create dresses and swimsuits that clung daringly close to the bodies of their newly unfettered wearers.



(California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way," 2011-12)

Selected Exhibition History
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". March 20, 2013 - June 3, 2013
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". March 20, 2013 - June 3, 2013
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". July 6, 2013 - September 29, 2013
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". July 6, 2013 - September 29, 2013
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". November 2, 2013 - February 9, 2014
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". November 2, 2013 - February 9, 2014
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". March 29, 2014 - July 6, 2014
  • California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". March 29, 2014 - July 6, 2014