Dress
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?
Artwork Details
- Title: Dress
- Designer: Rudi Gernreich (American (born Austria), Vienna 1922–1985 Los Angeles, California)
- Manufacturer: Harmon Knitwear (American, 1960–1976)
- Date: late 1960s
- Culture: American
- Medium: acrylic
- Credit Line: Gift of Richard Martin, 1999
- Object Number: 1999.57.1
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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