Rudi Gernreich and the Art of Bad Timing. (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Archer, Nicole
• Is Part Of: Textile. Volume 14:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 36
• Page End: 53
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Rudi Gernreich -- monokini -- fashion theory -- feminist fashion -- Mattachine Society -- youthquake -- textiles; Textile fabrics -- Periodicals; Textile crafts -- Periodicals; 746.05
• DOI: 10.1080/14759756.2016.1142766
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8350

Abstract

Abstract: It is strangely difficult to speak of "materiality" in the face of "fashion." Clothing designers often start with fabric (as a cloth's pattern, weight, grain, and give all lend themselves to particular forms, cuts, and methods of manufacture). Likewise, consumers tend to prioritize size, fit (range of motion), weight, and texture. Yet critical attentions are quick to neglect fashion's material consistencies in favor of its image—or "look." Throughout his 30+year career, the (anti-)fashion designer Rudi Gernreich worked hard to reconcile this suspicious fracture—suggesting that a mere change of silhouette would never be enough, if the real aim was to change the social fabric itself. Gernreich understood clothing as a kind of social-technology that could (and had to) be retooled in the service of attaining a more equitable future—and he considered it his responsibility, as a fashion designer, to do just this.