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1976, intimate apparel collection designed for Lily of France, satin boxer jumpsuit and white satin towel.
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1976, intimate apparel collection designed for Lily of France, jockey shorts for women.
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1976, intimate apparel collection designed for Lily of France, boxer shorts and shirt in men's shirting.
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1981, Rudi with his last collection. (Photograph © Tony Costa)
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1985, the pubikini photographed at Rudi's home a month before his death. (Photograph © Helmut Nevvton)
The Phone Call
Early in 1985 my son Christopher and I were sharing a cup of tea and some huge joke that had both of us laughing hysterically, when the telephone rang. Christopher answered it and, handing it to me, said, "It's Rudi." Still laughing, I said, "Hi, Rudi." I guess the mirth was contagious because Rudi started laughing too and said, "Hi, you'll never guess where I am ... in the hospital. It might be serious." I knew at that moment that he was dying.
The next morning Bill and I went to the hospital. We took him a book, and I picked him a large cymbidium orchid stalk from our garden. When we gave him the flower no one could find a vase for it. So Rudi plopped it into a bedpan urinal and said, "Now that's piss elegant."
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1968, Rudi and the Snow Queen.
The Dream
Shortly before Rudi's death, he called me and said, "I had a dream last night that I was in a graveyard, and I saw my own tombstone. I went up to it, and it said, 'He was always ten years ahead of his time.''' It was hard for me, but I laughed. Rudi said, "I told you that because you're the only person who I knew would laugh."
He was wrong of course. He was always thirty years ahead of his time.
Pas de Deux
Without Rudi I would have been a gifted and innovative model. Without me he would have been an avantgarde designer of genius. We made each other better. We were each other's catalyst. We didn't invent each other -- we played aesthetic pingpong together. One of us would say, or notice, or do something and the other would lob it back across the net. It was fun, it was invigorating, it was a true collaboration, and yes, it was love.
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Rudi Gernreich, 1964
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1958
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Malibu, 1965