"Peggy Moffitt (…) is an extraordinary model. At collections, after watching haughty, impersonal models, it's always a relief when Peggy comes on. She strikes odd little poses, surveys the audience, and generally behaves like a pretty clown," wrote New York Magazine in a feature about Peggy Moffitt in July 1968.
Moffitt's distinctive style of modeling was confirmed by the model herself in The Rudi Gernreich Book (1991), published with her husband, photographer William Claxton. Reflecting on her unique approach, she stated, "I entertained myself and the audience by regarding the collection as a play, with each outfit a new act or a new character," adding, "I didn't really model the clothes so much as perform them."
Unforgettable in her architectural five-point Vidal Sassoon bob (which hinted at Le Corbusier's five principles) and trademark heavy eye makeup, Moffitt passed away last week in Beverly Hills at 86 after a long illness.
Born in 1937 in Los Angeles, Margaret Anne Moffitt studied acting and dance (both of which influenced her unique modeling style) during the 1950s at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where she trained under Sydney Pollack for acting and Martha Graham for dance.
She appeared in various films, including Viva Las Vegas! (1956), Senior Prom (1958), and The Young Captives (1959), often in uncredited supporting roles.
Meeting Rudi Gernreich in 1954 while still in high school, and her future husband, photographer William Claxton, in the late 1950s, proved life-changing since she became a muse for both Gernreich and Claxton. At the time, Claxton worked as an art director for a record label and was better known for his black-and-white portraits of leading jazz figures like Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, and Thelonious Monk. Claxton took the famous image of Moffitt in Gernreich's monokini - a topless swimsuit that exposed the breasts and scandalized the world.
The design of the monokini wasn't actually intended for commercial production, and Gernreich's goal wasn't to sexualize women but to liberate the breast in an almost political and cultural statement. Moffitt agreed to model it only under certain conditions: that her husband, William Claxton, would photograph her, and that the image wouldn't be published in men's magazines.
Despite this intention, the backlash against the design that was supposed to be a symbol of women's freedom, became part of fashion history. The monokini was banned by the Pope and criticized by the Soviet newspaper Izvestia, which used it as an example of the decline of morality in the U.S. The topless swimsuit made as much of a global impact as the first lunar landing, solidifying Moffitt's status as the ultimate "mod" it-girl.
Moffitt modeled in New York, London, and Paris, and appeared in cult fashion films, including Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-up (1966), where she is shown modeling for the protagonist, a fashion photographer played by David Hemmings.
She also featured in William Klein's Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? (Who Are You Polly Maggoo?, 1966), in original fashion photographs taken from prominent magazines and shown from during the film, and in the scenes with the models in striped designs and during the sequence of the fashion shoot in the graveyard.
In 1967, Claxton and Moffitt produced what is considered the first fashion video, "Basic Black", featuring models Léon Bing and Ellen Harth in Rudi Gernreich's animal-patterned dresses with matching tights and underwear. Later that same year, Gernreich, Bing, and Moffitt appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
A muse who continued to dress the part and do her own makeup as the years went by, Peggy Moffitt even inspired a children's book.
In the late '60s, while working on a series of books for children about the seven deadly sins, author and illustrator William Pène du Bois was inspired by Moffitt after observing her meticulously apply her trademark makeup for two hours.
Pène du Bois asked her to be the muse for the main character in his book about one of the deadly sins, vanity.
Moffitt gladly agreed and even helped create the character that became the protagonist of Pretty Pretty Peggy Moffitt.
The book features a mini-Peggy character dressed in Gernreich outfits who can't resist admiring herself in every reflective surface she passes, leading to a series of unfortunate accidents.
Bruised and battered in this moral tale about the dangers of vanity, she finally comes to her senses after a final tumble down a coal chute (fashion fans and fashion collectors, keep an eye on the book as sometimes it reappears at auctions).
The book itself later inspired a photoshoot for New York Magazine in 1968, featuring Moffitt posing next to Pène du Bois's character while modeling Rudi Gernreich knitwear.
Moffitt's distinctive look and graphic style often made her a modern muse for contemporary designers, though she didn't hold the contemporary fashion scene in high regard. She instead remained steadfastly loyal to Rudi Gernreich, continuing to wear his designs throughout her life.
After Gernreich passed away in 1985 at the age of 63, Moffitt held the trademark to his name (but Gernreich had a longstanding alliance with the American Civil Liberties Union, so and the intellectual property of his estate was bequeathed to the organization) and owned around 300 of his pieces, including some in color combinations never commercially produced.
In 1991, she released The Rudi Gernreich Book with her husband, with whom she remained married until his passing in 2008.
Gernreich remained an inspiration for many contemporary fashion designers (think about the scoop-front dress in Daniel Roseberry's SA/W 21 collection for Schiaparelli - View this photo - a reinvention of Gernreich's design in the third image in this post, that Roseberry covered with a breastplate representing a pair of golden lungs).
In 2003, Moffitt collaborated with Comme des Garçons on a line that reinterpreted Gernreich's creations and that included trompe l'oeil designs directly lifted from Gernreich's pieces (View this photo), including a black sweater with two white circles and a triangle, an abstract representations of two breasts and a pubis (see also first image in this post).
In 2012, Moffitt's private collection of Gernreich's designs was showcased in "The Total Look: The Creative Collaboration Between Rudi Gernreich, Peggy Moffitt, and William Claxton", an exhibition that opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California.
In 2019, some of the pieces from her collection were featured in "Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and in 2018 selected items by Gernreich were relaunched, but the project didn't prove successful.
Moffitt embodied the rare synergy between muse and designer, elevating her collaboration with Gernreich into a creative force. Through her distinct style, expressive movements, and presence, she vividly illustrated how his avant-garde yet fluid designs symbolized freedom and self-expression at a time when women were striving for greater social and political autonomy.
She remains an iconic figure as she also demonstrated throughout her life the importance of creating a signature look and staying true to it. Reflecting on her trademark makeup routine, she once said, "It's my own private penance for being a model with a personality. I have to create my face each morning, like a monster."
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