The Rudi Gernreich Book

Taschen, 1999. Black hard cover with white titles on front and spine. Boards are in tidy condition. Contents tight and clean with no inscriptions. 256pp. DW has small tear to top of spine else very tidy. It has been covered. This is a heavy book so please check postage with bookseller.
One of the most original, prophetic and controversial American designers of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Rudi Gernreich (1922-1985), was fashion's bad boy and its oracle. The creator of the topless swimsuit and the thong, the see-through shirt and the uni-sex look, he infused Seventh Avenue with wit, intellect and the beauty of surprise. The Vienna born Gernreich left Austria in 1938, shortly after the Anschluss. As early as the 1950s, his innovative designs were causing a stir and by the 60s he had become both star and enfant terrible of the fashion world. This book documents Gernreich's career through William Claxton's acclaimed photography of Peggy Moffitt, Gernreich's favorite model and muse. Gernreich's work was rarely shown correctly in fashion bibles. His designs were considered too outrageous and were usually presented in a diluted manner. Augmenting Claxton's definitive studio work are shots of his earliest work and photographs by Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and David Bailey, among others.--from book jacket.