The first sex kitten of the Sexual Revolution wasn't a kitten at all. From her dyed-to-match three-inch pumps to the tips of her satin ears, she was all Bunny.
When the first Playboy Club opened its doors on a windy Chicago night in 1960, the image of the Playboy Bunny became a symbol of the country's sexual innocence. She was as American as apple pie and came in all races, shapes and sizes. In the last 40 years she has inspired artists, fashion designers, writers and filmmakers to capture her image. And she couldn't have done it without her famous uniform. Here's how the girl in the Bunny suit became an icon of pop culture.
<b>Bunny Beginnings</b>
The original Playboy Club in Chicago was patterned after the city's exclusive Gaslight Club, an elegant key Club for Chicago's powerbrokers and VIPs. When Playboy ran an article about it in 1959 the reader response was overwhelming. Sensing a trend, Playboy's promotions director Victor Lownes pitched an idea to Hef: Why not bring the magazine's bachelor pad image to life in an urban hangout of Playboy's own?
Hef loved the concept -- but a key element was still missing. The "Gaslight Girls" served their male patrons in Gay Nineties-style corsets and fishnet tights, and the Playboy Club needed a sexy server of its own. Hef's first thought was to have scantily-clad "Playmates" in nighties serving drinks...but soon after, a better idea came strolling into the half-finished Club.
Ilsa Taurins, who was dating Lownes at the time, looked at the magazine's logo and commented, "Why not dress them as rabbits?" Even though Hef had initially rejected using the magazine's ultra-male mascot for the Club's waitresses, Taurins tinkered with a design and had her mother sew one up. A few days later she came into the Chicago Club in a satin bodice, fluffy tail and headband with ears, and the first sex symbol of the Sixties was born.
<b>The Original Bunny</b>
Hef was hands on in regards to the way his Bunnies looked -- he made it the only patented uniform in U.S. history. The outfit showed just enough skin to be sexy but stay innocent, a visual symbol of Hef's "Look but don't touch" policy with the Bunnies, who were not allowed to date Keyholders (men who bought keys to the Playboy Club) until 1975.
Eventually Playboy hired French seamstress RenΘe Blot to perfect the suit. She took the original design and added a bow tie and shirtcuffs, reduced the size of the ears, cinched the waist and bumped up the cleavage size to a generous D-cup -- forcing most of the Bunnies to fill in the holes with everything from rolled-up socks to cut-up bunny tails. "All of us had to stuff our bras," says Kathryn Leigh Scott, author of <i>The Bunny Years</i> and three-year alumna of the New York Club. "There were very few of us who could simply zip themselves into that costume without any sort of padding."
But the true art of the suit was in the details. "A lot of thought went into this costume," says Pat Lacey, Director of Playmate and Bunny Promotions for Playboy and a 13-year veteran of the LA Club. "There are so many things that people don't realize that were really thought out so that Bunny could perform her job very easily and at the same time remain glamorous and graceful." Every girl was required to wear a pair of nude nylons under her black ones so that all the Bunnies had the same skin tone. The rosette name tag, sexily placed on the right hip, was there so seated Keyholders only had to look at eye-level to see a Bunny's name. And the costume's ribbons weren't only for decoration - they were what the Bunnies hooked their pens and penlights on. "It was almost like a telephone lineman or a carpenter," Scott says. "You carried the tools of your trade on what was your uniform."
And the sexiest part of the costume wasn't sewn on at all. "Part of being a Bunny was being a flirt, and the costume really helped you flirt," Scott says. "So when you got a tip you'd slip it in what we called 'The Bank.' You'd slip it into your cleavage. It was a turn-on, there's no question."
<b>"A Rainbow of Colors"</b>
The original satin uniform came in ten colors, and by 1962 there were 12 to choose from. It was up to the Bunny mothers to make sure no one color was ever in excess and keep a rainbow of colors on the floor. In fact, the only place a Keyholder could find identical Bunnies was in each Club's VIP room, where the Bunnies wore blue velvet trimmed in silver lamΘ. "We tried to go for a contrast between skin color, hair color and eye color," says Lacey, a former Bunny mother and Bunny supervisor. "The darker-toned Bunnies looked best in pinks and the powder-blues, and most redheads got a green costume. Although, if a girl had gorgeous blue eyes, you'd of course want to put her in a blue costume."
But what every Bunny really wanted was a black suit. "They were considered the most elegant," Scott says. They got so popular that eventually a Bunny had to earn the privilege of wearing one. "It would be the most senior girl, or a Bunny who really excelled in her duties, or epitomized what we called 'The Bunny Image,' who got to wear the black costume," Lacey says.
The solid-colored satin didn't last forever. In the late Sixties the Playboy Clubs broke away from the 12-color standard and started designing suits in everything from leopard prints to psychedelic Pucci swirls. A favorite was one nicknamed the "Wonder Bread" suit that was covered in multicolored polka dots. There were even Holiday Bunnies for December, who wore red satin suits trimmed in white fur. By 1980, a lace and satin "Bunny Cabaret" costume was developed and worn until the last Playboy Club closed its doors in 1991.
<b>The Bunnies are Back</b>
Hef often made standout Bunnies into Playmates, and today a handful of Playmates are donning the famous satin ears once again. At Hef's directive, the classic1962 costume was brought back in late1997 for Playmates to wear exclusively at Playboy events.
Annie Thompson, who worked at the LA Club from 1968 to 1979 and later traveled to fit Bunnies in Atlantic City, Miami and Greece, is the only seamstress Hef allows to fit Bunny costumes on Playmates today. "The Bunnies back at the Club were usually average sized," Thompson says, laughing, "but these Playmates, they're about nine feet tall!" So far she's fit 15 Playmates for everything from Mansion parties to Playboy's international editions. She even made the first-ever gold lamΘ costume for PMOY 1999 Heather Kozar at Hef's request. And no, the Playmates don't have to stuff their bras, Thompson says.
And as for the original costumes? They're almost impossible to find. Each Bunny was required to turn in her suit once she left the Club, and Playboy rarely parts with the Bunny costumes in its archives. The Chicago Historical Society and the Women's Museum in Dallas are two museums lucky enough to have one in their collection. "The Bunny costume is one of the most significant representations of women in American culture in the 20th century," says Jacqueline M. Bell, marketing director for the Women's Museum. "The image of the Bunny itself certainly has its own legacy, but it also has a special significance for many famous women featured in other parts of museum who once wore the costume."
But for the original Club Bunnies, the costume will always hold a certain mystique. "Even for someone like me, who hasn't put one on in 35 years, there's a thrill to the idea of wearing it again," Scott says. "There's just something terribly sexy about it."
