The following post was written by Christina Johnson, Associate Curator of the FIDM Museum.
FIDM Museum Rudi Gernreich Archive Storage, 2019.
Reorganizing and cataloging the FIDM Museum’s Rudi Gernreich Archive was one of the first projects I began after being hired as Collections Manager in 2003. Although at that point I was very much a nineteenth-century specialist, handling his pieces tempted me to venture a century beyond my beloved crinolines and black-and-white daguerreotypes, and onward to mini skirts, psychedelic colors, and a happening mid-century Los Angeles scene. Since then, I’ve had an abiding interest in this intriguing LA-based designer. I’ve spent hours poring over the FIDM Museum’s collections, as well as archives held by other institutions. I’ve also had the honor of connecting with people who were an important part of his world.
Los Angeles magazine, March 1968; Rudi Gernreich with model Léon Bing in pink dress surrounded by other artists; FIDM Museum Rudi Gernreich Archive, Bequest of the Rudi Gernreich Estate.
I’m interested in the personal reasons curators decide to embark on certain exhibitions. I’m drawn to Gernreich because of his brilliant fashion designs, and the fact that many are held by the FIDM Museum. I’m also fascinated by the histories of my own backyard. Gernreich called LA home, and I was born here, as were my parents. I also tend to be mesmerized by the object trails people leave behind, and what this ‘stuff’ reveals about multi-faceted personalities. Gernreich is one of those people who left a massive amount of material for us to analyze.
Pattern sketch of dress worn by Léon Bing in Los Angeles magazine above, Resort 1967-68; Gernreich Archive, Bequest of the Rudi Gernreich Estate.
Rudolf “Rudi” Gernreich (1922-1985) had an extensive output and his designs survive in collections across the United States. Major holdings include: the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Kent State University Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and at our neighboring institutions, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and UCLA Special Collections. Shortly after the designer’s death, his estate bequeathed his private archive to the FIDM Museum. We welcome all researchers to the archive who wish to explore Gernreich’s creative life. It includes runway samples, headwear, jewelry, footwear, prototypes, and Gernreich’s personal wardrobe. It also contains ephemera such as patterns, catalogs, sketches, and the publicity scrapbooks assembled by Layne Nielson, his Assistant Designer from 1964 to 1969. I give grateful thanks to Layne for his extensive oral histories in 2017 and 2018.
FIDM Museum objects in Fashion Will Go Out of Fashion exhibition, Neue Galerie, Austria, 2000; FIDM Museum Institutional Files.
Selections from the FIDM Museum archive have been loaned to numerous exhibitions, most recently Gender Bending Fashion at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2019); The Museum of Modern Art’s Items: is Fashion Modern? (2017-2018); and LACMA’s Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear 1715-2015 (2016), later traveling to the St. Louis Art Museum and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Exhibitions of note focused solely on this designer’s work include: Rudi Gernreich: A Tribute, curated by Layne Nielson at Otis-Parsons Exhibition Center, Los Angeles (1985); Fashion Will Go Out of Fashion, organized by Brigitte Felderer at the Neue Galerie Graz in Austria (2000), later traveling to the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; and the Kent State University Museum’s Rudi Gernreich: Bold by Dr. Anne Bissonnette (2008-2009).
Gernreich with FIDM students and model, California Apparel News, November 5, 1982; Gernreich Archive, Bequest of the Rudi Gernreich Estate.