Gloria Steinem wore the uniform for three weeks, then wrote about her experiences as a cottontail, and Barbara Walters went undercover in bunny ears and tail as well. Lauren Hutton and Deborah Harry worked as bunnies before finding success as a model and singer, respectively.
Women in bunny costumes worked as waitresses and hostesses in 35 locations in the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan and the Philippines. The 1960s and ‘70s were boom years for the members-only Playboy Clubs. There’s a bunny costume in the Smithsonian, of course. Over the years, the cut of the leg inched higher, and a pin with the bunny’s name was added. Reportedly designed by the girlfriend of a Playboy executive and her mother, it was a modified one-piece bathing suit-like design with a collar, cuffs and a fluffy white tail, accessorized with a rabbit ear headdress. The original bunny outfit was introduced at the first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960. The bunny’s new look, which has not yet been created, will be worn by employees of a Playboy Club scheduled to open in March in Las Vegas at the Palms Resort and Casino. The Playboy bunny costume, the Energizer rabbit of skimpy cocktail waitress uniforms that has been shaking its tail for 45 years, will be reinterpreted by Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.
