Sixties Model Peggy Moffitt Dead at 86

Updated Aug. 13 at 3:11 p.m. ET

Sixties-era model and muse Peggy Moffitt died on Saturday in Beverly Hills at age 86 after a long illness. Her son Christopher Claxton confirmed the news.

She was known for her distinctive five-point Vidal Sassoon haircut, harlequin eye makeup and her collaboration with Rudi Gernreich, including modeling the late Los Angeles designer’s monokini in 1964, which was an international news event after Women’s Wear Daily published the topless image. Despite the fact the design was never intended to be produced commercially, but to be a symbol of women’s freedom, it sparked outrage.

Though it defined her much of her life, it was only a blip in a long fashion career during which she promoted unrestricted movement in knitted clothing that was both avant-garde and effortless at a time when women were rallying for more social and political freedom.

A native of L.A., Moffitt was born at Hollywood Hospital and attended Marlborough School for girls. She studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City in the 1950s, where her instructors included Sydney Pollack and Martha Graham and her classmates were Robert Duvall and Suzanne Pleshette. That led to a short contract at Paramount Pictures and a series of supporting roles.

When she met her future husband, photographer William Claxton in L.A. in 1958, he was working as an art director for a jazz record label, and inspired her to try modeling. They married in 1959 in New York, and had a son, Christopher, in 1973.

She was also a trained ballet dancer, which influenced her taste in clothing and her balletic style of modeling — and caught the eye of Gernreich, known for his avant-garde, body-con style.

Moffitt first met Rudi when she was in high school, in 1954, and she was working at the Jax clothing boutique in Beverly Hills. “They hit it off and had a lot in common,” her son said. “They approached art and design in a similar way and had a big appreciation for dance — and humor in design.…One of the many examples was when Rudi won his first Coty Award, she wore a women’s suit he designed with one shawl lapel and one peak lapel. At the time, she thought that was hilarious. And Rudi had fun watching her perform as well.”

“He once said to me, ‘You inspire me when I don’t want to be inspired,’” Moffitt said of the relationship with Gernreich, a four-time Coty winner.

Claxton contributed to her legacy with his iconic images. In 1967, they produced what is regarded as the first fashion video, “Basic Black: William Claxton w/ Peggy Moffitt,” and in 1991, they released the Taschen-published tome, “The Rudi Gernreich Book.”

“They all inspired each other, and there was a synergistic effect between them, especially with Rudi. Every time he needed to get photos done, he called my father,” Christopher said.

Moffitt modeled in New York, London and Paris, and appeared in the cult fashion films “Blow-up” (1962) and “Who Are You, Polly Maggoo” (1966).

A Mod muse who continued to dress the part and do her own makeup into her 70s, Moffitt and her graphic style were on mood boards of many designers over the years, including Marc Jacobs, even if she didn’t have such a high regard for the contemporary fashion scene.

“Fashion fell off a long time ago. I can’t tell you to the minute that it died. Probably when everybody started wearing pants,” she told WWD in 2016. “Fashion is really dead except for…dream occasions or fantasy.”

Moffitt never stopped wearing Gernreich’s designs, owning more than 300 pieces, many one-offs in custom color combinations never produced.

Some of her pieces were featured in “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich” at the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A. in 2019, including the 1964 topless bathing suit, or breast-exposing monokini, styled for the show with a bandeau underneath that had the word “censored” written across it. Critics in Moscow pointed to the bathing suit as the decline of morality in the U.S., the Pope banned it, and at least two American women were arrested for wearing it, but Moffitt always defended it: “Rudi’s aim was to free the breast rather than glorify it sexually,” a quote on the gallery wall read.

“My mom agreed to model it but had certain terms. Only her husband would photograph her in it on a closed set and [the photos] would not be published in men’s magazines. The image was printed fully topless in WWD, and had a big media impact and a lot of people were outraged,” Christopher said.

Over the years, the icon tired of talking about it in interviews. “She said imagine doing something that took one second in your life and having to talk about it for the remainder of your life,” he said.

Moffitt, who long held a trademark on Gernreich’s name (he died in 1985 at the age of 63) had several forays into the fashion business herself. She collaborated with Comme des Garçons on T-shirts and reinterpretations of Gernreich designs in 2003, and in 2016 launched her own leisurewear label with L.A. designer Evelina Galli, who represented the style personality in a licensing deal with Sage Licensing in 2019.

“She was of a generation of young women wanting to push envelopes and explore, but at the same time not wanting to be too crazy and the bad girl,” her son said. “Because of the safety she felt with my father and trust, and the fact she believed in what Rudi was doing so much, it allowed her to be the creative person she wanted to be.”