Fashion’s Subversives

Fashion’s Subversives showcases the daring, revolutionary designs of fashion trailblazers Paco Rabanne, Rudi Gernreich, Geoffrey Beene, Yves St. Laurent, and more.

Spanning the 19th century through today, Fashion’s Subversives presents nearly 40 examples of garments and accessories—from the humble denim jean to the scandalous bikini—that broke from culturally accepted norms and forever changed popular fashion and the fashion industry. Featured designers include Yves St. Laurent, Geoffrey Beene, Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo, Paco Rabanne, Balenciaga, Rudi Gernreich, Diane von Furstenburg, and Paco Rabanne.

Created as a complementary exhibition to the special-engagement exhibition Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich, Fashion’s Subversives amplifies the concepts of revolution, resistance, and authenticity captured in the retrospective of Gernreich’s life and work, which is organized and circulated by the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles. Much like Gernreich’s own brave and audacious designs, including the topless monokini, the ensembles in Fashion’s Subversives changed contemporary fashion not only on the runway, but in real life. 

The exhibition’s ensembles and accessories are organized into sections based on the subversive ideals they embody. Jumpsuits by Gernreich, Diane von Furstenberg, and Geoffrey Beene, which prioritized utilitarian function and comfort, contrast with garments by those like Emilio Pucci who departed from the use of traditional fabrics and materials to create dresses made of chainmail, plastic discs, and Lycra. Sections of miniskirts and hot pants from the 1960s and 1970s, as well as a bevy of bathing suits and bikinis, then address the complicated subject of modesty.

Fashion’s Subversives also explores the histories of denim jeans as a symbol of 1950s youth culture and how designs such as Chanel’s little black dress and the advent of costume jewelry undermined the socioeconomic hierarchy of the industry by making versatile, stylish, and expensive-looking clothing and accessories affordable for the masses. Yves St. Laurent’s 1967 smoking suit for women—the first tailored tuxedo suit for women—is also featured as an example of fashion that transcended accepted gender norms.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website