Rudi Gernreich was an avant-garde designer whose works questioned the status quo of the fashion industry and often reflected his own political beliefs (Low 1/ Fig. 1). Born in 1922 in Vienna, Gernreich grew up within a non-religious Jewish middle-class family. Following his father’s death, Gernreich was raised mainly by his mother and aunt who ran a fashion salon in which she made copies of popular French designs (Felderer). Due to anti-Semitic violence and the rapidly approaching Nazi occu...| Fashion History Timeline
The “God Save the Queen” t-shirt was created by Westwood and McLaren in 1977, the same year that Queen Elizabeth II would celebrate her Silver Jubilee, marking twenty-five years of her reign as the Queen of England. In the summer of 1977, various royal pageants and celebrations were set to take place to commemorate this occasion. In the Punk world, the summer of 1977 became known as “the Summer of Hate” (Westwood and Kelly 206). This garment reflects the style of the Punk subculture i...| Fashion History Timeline