Barely a Bore

Rudi Gernreich was bored to tears with necklines. The V neck, the scoop neck, the boat neck, the turtle neck, the square neck, even the deep-cut plunge, all seemed drags. But the California designer is an all-action-no-talk man, and in no time at all he had pulled himself together and come up with a rather refreshing idea: drop a neckline low enough, say to the waist. Then it actually won't be a neckline at all, and no one will be even the least bit bored.

Rudi was right as rain. His topless bathing suit (designed as "a prediction of things to come") was first modeled in the flesh for buyers early this month, drew S.R.O. crowds and, of course, caused raging controversy. "Now come, boys," wrote the New York Herald Tribune's Eugenia Sheppard, "girls have been dropping the tops of their suits for years." "It has no dignity," snipped Designer Norman Norell, "it's rock bottom." Colleague Oleg Cassini explained that the suit could hardly influence him. "I'm already very conscious," he yawned, "of that part of the anatomy." Through all the fuss, Rudi stood fast, insisted the suit was no gag. "After all," he sighed, "women have been exposing their bosoms all through history. Now all of a sudden it's a big deal."

Buyers, devil-may-care in the showroom, found store owners back home far from bold, and plenty worried. Hess's Department Store, in Allentown, Pa., faced picket lines of women (WE DRAW THE LINE, read the placards), was stuck with a shipment and the likelihood of few, if any, sales. Manhattan's Lord & Taylor changed its mind even before the suits arrived. "They will be sealed up immediately," said the store's president, Melvin Dawley, "and shipped to the poor." More sophisticated Western ladies snapped up models available in San Francisco stores and over the warnings of local clergymen that "nakedness and paganism go hand in hand," the first few tentative attempts at bare-breasted exposure took place. One deterrent: very few girls have either the courage to strip or the bosom to make it worthwhile.

At week's end, with all counties still not heard from, the topless suit remained a most delicate issue. As with Fanny Hill, the meek trembled while the smart set shrugged. English Channel Swimmer Florence Chadwick got practical and confused things even more. "I'm too modest to wear a topless suit," said she, "but it actually would be more comfortable. It would be even more comfortable to swim without the bot tom as well."

Another idea for Rudi--should things get boring again.

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