"Rudi Gernreich (1922-1985) is a great example of how far we haven’t come... ... " so leads the intro to an article written for the New York Times Magazine in April of 2010. The dress currently residing in my shop bears strong resemblance to the one worn by Peggy Moffit and a close twin to my dress also resides in The Met as part of their Gernreich collection. These op art checkered pieces are instantly recognizable by vintage collectors as Gernreichs — and by that I mean a girl like me could spot one peeking out from a rack at a good 100 yards and instantly hone in like a blood hound.
I find this knit dress to be still shockingly modern and if a girl paired a dress like this with this season's crop of strong boots and an over-sized clutch she would garner a few compliments I am sure. The thing about Gernreich was that the breadth of ideas that he put out there is actually quite extensive — way more then the monokini and checks you automatically think of when you think of Gernreich. It is worth a lazy Sunday afternoon to throw Gernreich into the Google search box and take a few hours browsing and lusting and really getting a feel for the innovative ideas he came up with and then start to correlate that with what you see on the runways of today to really get an idea of his influence even now.
Two of my personal favourites are the pink & tan, clear plastic inset minis with matching footwear (of course), that graced the cover of Time in 1967 and are now a permanent part of The Mets collection. But maybe I am a bit biased over the tongue in cheek wit of the accompanying description:
"In these Gernreich creations, vertical and horizontal windows—like the zips in a Barnett Newman painting overlaid on a figure—delineate an axis of nudity on the body. These dresses appeared on the cover of "Time" (December 1, 1967) accompanying a story on Gernreich that described him as "the most way-out, far-ahead designer in the U.S." The ensembles exemplify Gernreich's famous declaration: "A woman today can be anything she wants to be—a Gainsborough or a Reynolds or a Reynolds Wrap." Apparently, she can also be a Saran Wrap. (Shown with 1988.74.1a-f in foreground, also by Gernreich.)"
Gotta love a witty curator.