PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania will kick off its 2001-2002 exhibition season with a major exhibition of Rudi Gernreich’s fashions. "Rudi Gernreich: Fashion will go out of Fashion" will run from September 15 through November 11, 2001. ICA will be the only venue in the United States for this show, which was curated by Brigitte Felderer and organized by the Neue Galerie in Graz, Austria. Gernreich is best known for the topless swimsuit (the "monokini") and is credited with liberating women from clothes that constrained the body by creating the first soft, transparent brassiere (the "no-bra" bra) and androgynous unisex clothing. Pieces for the show are from the following collections: Gernreich’s archive at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles, CA; the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, NY; the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY; the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA; and from private collectors and dealers.

This exhibition has been generously funded with the support of the Austrian Cultural Institute New York, and the Advisory Board, friends, members of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of March 2, 2001.)

The novel installation design (by COOP Himmelb(l)au of Vienna) for "Rudi Gernreich: Fashion will go out of Fashion" gathers film footage, newspaper cuttings, slides, photos, and pictures chronicling Gernreich’s work to give visitors a social context for the period during which the designer was most active. In addition to a variety of clothing that shows the historical significance of Gernreich’s designs, the exhibition includes a "virtual catwalk" by Daniel Egg of Vienna that offers a three-dimensional view of mannequins sporting Gernreich’s swimwear.

"ICA was founded in 1963 at the height of Rudi Gernreich’s career as a fashion designer," says ICA Director Claudia Gould. "Two years later we presented Andy Warhol’s first solo museum exhibition, where Edie Sedgwick was seen wearing a Gernreich dress. I am pleased that ICA will be only site in the United States showing this Rudi Gernreich exhibition, because of our historical connection to this very important designer."

Born in Vienna in 1922, Gernreich migrated to Los Angeles in 1938 to escape the Nazis and became a global force in the fashion industry from the 1940’s until his death in 1985. Recognized as a futurist, Gernreich’s avant-garde designs garnered controversy and publicity from fashion industry magazines throughout the 1960’s, ’70’s, and ‘80’s. The exhibition title is derived from Gernreich’s 1970 interview with Life magazine, during which he said he foresaw a time when "people will stop bothering about romance in their clothes…. Fashion will go out of fashion. The ‘utility principle’ will allow us to take our minds off how we look and concentrate on really important matters."