CBS Radio to Air Discussion of Rudi Gernreich’s Topless Bathing Suit for Women

June 19, 1964 - A discussion of the new topless bathing suit for women will be among the topics on tomorrow’s presentation of “The World This Week” over the CBS radio network. Views will be expressed by Rudi Gernreich, who designed the suit — which he calls a “monokini” — and Mrs. Ida Rosenthal, chairman of the board of Maidenform, Inc. The program will be broadcast in New York at 6:10 p.m.

Gernreich’s revolutionary and controversial design includes a bottom that extends from the midriff to the upper thigh and is held up by shoestring laces that make a halter around the neck.

Gernreich designed the monokini as a protest against a repressive society. He did not initially intend to produce the monokini commercially but was persuaded by Susanne Kirtland of Look magazine to make it available to the public.

When the first photograph of a frontal view of Peggy Moffitt wearing the design was published in Women’s Wear Daily on June 3, it generated a great deal of controversy in the United States and other countries.

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