Rudi exhibited his fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 1967, "Two Modern Artists of Dress: Elizabeth Hawes and Rudi Gernreich". A retrospective titled "Fashion Will Go Out of Fashion" was assembled in Kunstlerhaus Graz, Austria, in 2000. In 2003, an exhibition of his work held at the Phoenix Art Museum, in Phoenix, Arizona, hailed him as one of the most original, prophetic, and controversial American designers of the 1950s through to the 1970s. In 2019, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles created "Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich", a major exhibition detailing Gernreich's life and career. Gernreich received his first design award in 1956 from "Sports Illustrated". They awarded him the American Sportswear Design Award for his design of a black-and-white check wool jersey tank suit with no built-in bra. He won the Wool Knit Association award in 1960. In 1963, Gernreich won two major awards: in May he received "Sports Illustrated"'s Sporting Look Award and in June he was awarded the Coty American Fashion Critics Award. The Coty Award stirred a controversy when the first recipient of the award, Norman Norell, gave his Coty Award back as a protest against Gernreich's recognition. Norell told "Women's Wear Daily", "It no longer means a thing to me. I can't bear to look at it anymore. I saw a photograph of a suit of Rudi's and one lapel of the jacket was shawl and the other was notched—well!" He blamed the vote on "jury members from "Glamour" and "Seventeen" who don't get around to high fashion collections are responsible for the Gernreich vote." In response to Heller's protest, the Bonwit Teller department store ran a half-page ad with the headline: "Rudi Gernreich, we'd give you the Coty Award all over again!" He received the award again in 1963, 1966, and 1967. Additional awards included the Neiman Marcus award, Dallas, 1961; Sporting Look award, 1963; "Sunday Times" International Fashion Award, London, 1965; Filene's Design award, Boston, 1966; Knitted Textile Association award, 1975; Council of Fashion Designers of America Special Tribute, 1985. Marylou Luther, the "Los Angeles Times" fashion editor, wrote, "To most of the people in the fashion industry, he was considered the most inventive designer of these times."