Dress

Rudi Gernreich|Harmon Knitwear

late 1960s · acrylic · Costume Institute

Conceptual designer Rudi Gernreich offered his clothing as a conceptual art mixed with publicity-as-art to which he was drawn as much as Dali or Warhol. He was alert to the art of his time in a full range: his bathing suits joined by heavy black tracery resemble the outlines in the early-twentieth-century paintings of Georges Rouault or the Op Art works of the 1960s. This trompe l'oeil dress is a single piece: what looks like a sweater casually thrown over the shoulders and tied at the front is actually an integral part of the dress. What is more American than such a sense of humor?

Artist

Rudi Gernreich|Harmon Knitwear

Date

late 1960s

Medium

acrylic

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Richard Martin, 1999