Rudi sets you free!

This thong was designed by Rudi Gernreich (fig. 5). Rudi Gernreich was a Jewish Austrian-born American fashion designer. He is regarded as one of the most avant-garde modern dress artists, as well as a social activist and political commentator.

As a helper in his aunt’s dress shop, he learned about high fashion in Vienna very early on. He joined Lester Horton’s modern dance company in 1942, which was formed by an American who advocated racial integration. With the intention to accentuate the body and keep the freedom, Gernreich designed an outfit worn by two dancers together. He also designed a topless swimsuit called monokini against the sexualization of the body and the shame of nakedness.

He and his mother escaped from Austria to the United States when fleeing Nazi oppression after the Anschluss. Even after he immigrated to Los Angeles, he still faced discrimination and was arrested in 1951 for engaging in “homosexual behavior.” Together with Harry Hay, his communist partner, he was one of the founding members of the Mattachine Society, an early homosexual rights organization in the United States.

After throwing himself into fashion design, he was famous for extending the boundaries of fashion, especially in the public perception of gender (fig. 7). In the mid-1960s, Gernreich created the first topless swimsuit, which he called the monokini. In 1974, when he designed a thong bikini, he was credited with introducing the modern thong. Four years later, he designed the thong that is the protagonist of our story.