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THE RUDI GERNREICH BOOK |
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1965, geometric tears (photograph © William Claxton) Sara Worman, then vice president of Robinson's and regional director of The Fashion Group, told the Los Angeles limes, "I can't believe this: it's 1964 all over again. I agree the suit was a social statement-the most prophetic ever made by any designer in the world. It was his most brilliant concept, and from it grew all sorts of things we now take for granted. Why take the single most important idea he ever had-the one that changed the way women dressed all over the Western world-and refuse to show it on a model, when we are showing everything else he ever did on live models?" Moffitt won. The suit was not modeled. Only photos of it were shown. The topless also occasioned another Gernreich first: the no-bra bra. It probably did more to change the way clothes fit than any other single item of apparel- intimate or not. Compared with the twin torpedo brassieres of those days (Gernreich compared them to "something you put on your head on New Year's Eve"), the no-bra bra that was made for Exquisite Form was indeed revolutionary, allowing breasts to look natural, freeing women of the padding, boning, and topstltching that characterized bras of that era.. It consisted of two cups of soft, transparent nylon attached to shoulder straps, with a narrow band of stretch fabric encircling the rib cage. I y the spring of 1965, the no-bra bra had proved itself a retail success and was quickly followed by the no-sides bra (cut low to accommodate dresses with deep armholes), the no-front bra (cut low to go with slit-to-the-waist necklines) and the no-back bra (anchored around the waist instead of the rib cage). By the spring of 1965, the no-bra bra had proved itself a retail success and was quickly followed by the no-sides bra (cut low to accommodate dresses with deep armholes), theno-front bra (cut low to go with slit-to-the-waist necklines) and no-back bra (anchored around the waist instead of the rib cage). The no-bra bra was also to be the catalyst that brought Moffitt to New York, where, at Richard Avedon's studio, she met another modernist of the era, London hair designer Vidal Sassoon. Months later, when he came to Los Angeles, she introduced him to Gernreich. The two became instant friends and collaborators in creating graphic new cuts in hair and clothes.
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