Peggy Moffitt: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|American model and actress (1937–2024)}}

| name = Peggy Moffitt

| image=Peggy Moffitt in Rudi Gernreich monokini swimsuit 1964.jpg =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_name = Margaret Anne Moffitt

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|19401937|510|142}}

| birth_place = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2024|8|10|1937|10|2}}

| death_place = [[Beverly Hills, California]], U.S.

'''Margaret<!--The "Anne''' "'''Peggy'''" middle name appears to be a different person (born 1940) in the California Birth Index; the Margaret Moffitt born 1937 with the matching mother'''s maiden name has no listed middle name.--> Moffitt''' (bornOctober May2, 141937 – August 10, 19402024) iswas a formeran American [[Fashion model|model]] and actress. During the 1960s, she worked very closely with fashion designer [[Rudi Gernreich]], and developed a signature style that featured heavy makeup and an asymmetrical hair cut.

Though her unique look has now become widely recognized, Moffitt began her a career as an actress, beginning with an uncredited role in the 1955 film ''[[You're Never Too Young]]''.<ref>{{IMDb title|0048822|You're Never Too Young}}</ref><ref name=hunter>{{cite book|last=Drohojowska-Philp|first=Hunter|title=Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s|year=2011|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-1-429-95899-8|page=96}}</ref> She first began modeling in [[Paris]] in the 1950s.<ref>{{cite web|last=Moore|first=Booth|title=Cultural Touchstone: Peggy Moffitt|url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/2013fashion/mar/03/imagealltherage/la-ig-peggy-20130303-story.html|work=latimes.com[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=March 3, 2013|url-status=live|archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111185244/http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/03/image/la-ig-peggy-20130303|archivedatearchive-date=November 11, 2013}}</ref>

=== MonokiniGernreich, Moffitt, and Claxton ===

Gernreich first conceived of a topless swimsuit in December 1962, but didn't intend to produce the design commercially. It had more meaning to Gernreich as an idea than as a reality.<ref name=smith>{{cite magazine |last=Smith |first=Liz |title=The Nudity Cult |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076827/index.htm |magazine=Sports Illustrated |accessdateaccess-date=14 January 14, 2013 |authorlink=Liz Smith (journalist) |date=January 18, 1965 |url-status=livedead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105165617/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076827/index.htm |archivedatearchive-date=5 November 5, 2013}}</ref> Gernreich had Moffitt model the suit in person for [[Diana Vreeland]] of ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', who asked him why he conceived of the design. Gernreich told her he felt it was time for "freedom-in fashion as well as every other facet of life," but that the swimsuit was just a statement. "[Women] drop their [[bikini]] tops already," he said, "so it seemed like the natural next step."<ref name=bay>{{cite web |first=Cody |last=Bay |title=The Story Behind the Lines |url=http://onthisdayinfashion.com/?p=1076 |date=June 16, 2010 |accessdate=22 January 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704181947/http://onthisdayinfashion.com/?p=1076 |archivedate=4 July 4, 2013}}</ref> She told him, "If there's a picture of it, it's an actuality. You must make it."<ref name=gernreich21>{{cite web |title=The Rudi Gernreich Book |url=http://www.naderlibrary.com/gernreich.21.htm |accessdate=11 January 11, 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311025246/http://www.naderlibrary.com/gernreich.21.htm |archivedate=March 11, 2014 }}</ref> Gernreich decided to call his design a [[monokini]]. When a photo shoot was arranged on [[Montego Bay]] in Jamaica,<ref>{{cite web |title=The First Monokini: Trying to make the BahamasTopless Swimsuit happen in 1964 |url=https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/03/05/the-first-monokini-trying-to-make-the-topless-swimsuit-happen-in-1964/ |website=Messy Nessy Chic |access-date=September 4, 2021 |date=March 5, 2014}}</ref> all five models hired for the session refused to wear the design. The photographer finally persuaded aan localadventurous prostitutelocal to model it.<ref name=kalter>{{cite news |last=Kalter |first=Suzy |title=20 Remember Those Topless Suits? After a Cool-Out, Racy Rudi Gernreich Returns to the Fashion Swim |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20079359,00.html |accessdate=14 January 14, 2013 |newspaper=People Magazine |date=May 25, 1981 |url-status=livedead |quote=The photographer on location in Montego Bay finally persuaded an adventurous local to wiggle into the designer's latest concoction: tight-fitting black knit bottoms held up with—gasp!—nothing more than a pair of skinny suspenders. |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/2014031605360020110110182500/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20079359,00.html |archivedate=16January March10, 20142011}}</ref>

To avoid sensationalizing the design, Moffitt, her husband and photographer, [[William Claxton (photographer)|William Claxton]], and Gernreich decided to publish their own pictures for the fashion press and news media.<ref>{{cite web |title=Peggy Moffitt in Rudi Gernreich, Topless Swimsuit (Getty Museum) |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/284492/william-claxton-peggy-moffitt-in-rudi-gernreich-topless-swimsuit-american-1964/ |website=The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles |access-date=September 4, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Moffitt was initially resistant to the idea of posing topless, and afraid the photograph and ensuing coverage could get out of control. She said,

{{quoteblockquote|I am a puritanical descendant of the [[Mayflower]]. I carried that goddamned [[Plymouth Rock]] on my back. … When I did give in, I did so with a lot of rules. I would not show myself on the runway that way. I'd do it only with Bill. Since Rudi would never ever have enough money to do this, I did it for free. But I had final say on everywhere it went photographically. Not ''Playboy''. Not ''Esquire''. I didn't want to be exploited.<ref name=amorosi>{{cite web|last=Amorosi|first=A.D.|title=Q&A: Peggy Moffitt|url=http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/091301/cov.fall.qanda.shtml|publisher=The Philadelphia Citypaper|accessdate=11 January 2013|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919005901/http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/091301/cov.fall.qanda.shtml|archivedate=19 September 2012}}</ref>}}

''Look'' was the first to publish, after [[Life (magazine)#1936 weekly news magazine|LIFE]] refused,<ref>{{cite web |author1=Miss Rosen |title=The Photograph That Rocked the Pop Culture Landscape |url=https://www.featureshoot.com/2019/07/the-photograph-that-rocked-the-pop-culture-landscape/ |website=Feature Shoot |access-date=September 4, 2021 |date=July 1, 2019 |quote=The idea for the monokini first came to Gernreich in December 1962 and first appeared in futuristic fashion feature in a late 1963 issue of Look magazine — after LIFE refused to publish them. In The Rudy Gernreich Book, Moffitt recalls the editor at LIFE shamelessly told Claxton, "This is a family magazine, and naked breasts are allowed only if the woman is an aborigine."}}</ref> a rear view of Moffitt modeling the swimsuit on June 2, 1964,<ref name=gernrich20/><ref name=shteir>{{cite book |first=Rachel |last=Shteir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPwVfOUWAe0C |title=Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show |pages=318–321 |publisher=East Pakistan Police Co-operative Society |year=1964 |isbn=0-19-512750-1 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215043725/https://books.google.com/books?id=vPwVfOUWAe0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |archivedate=2017-02-February 15, 2017}}</ref> and the following day columnist [[Carol Bjorkman]] of ''[[Women's Wear Daily]]'' published a frontal view picture of Moffitt wearing the suit.<ref name=gernrich20>{{cite web|title=The Rudi Gernreich Book |url=http://www.naderlibrary.com/gernreich.20.htm |accessdate=11 January 11, 2013 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810085850/http://www.naderlibrary.com/gernreich.20.htm |archivedate=10 August 10, 2014}}</ref> The photograph became a world-wide news event.<ref name=gernrich21>{{cite web|title=The Rudi Gernreich Book |url=http://www.naderlibrary.com/gernreich.21.htm |accessdate=11 January 11, 2013 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311025246/http://www.naderlibrary.com/gernreich.21.htm |archivedate=11 March 11, 2014}}</ref> It became a celebrated image of the extremism of 1960s designs.<ref>Jennifer Craik, ''The Face of Fashion'', page 145, Routledge, 1993, {{ISBN|0203409426}}</ref> MoffitMoffitt later said, "It was a political statement. It wasn't meant to be worn in public."<ref name=nymagazine>{{cite journal |journal =New York Magazine |date= January 14, 1991 |page=21 |volume= 24 |issue= 2 |issn= 0028-7369 | publisher= New York Media, LLC |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOkCAAAAMBAJ |title=High Fashion's Lowest Neckline |first1=Jeanette |last1=Walls}}</ref>

Moffitt tired of the single-minded attention to the images of her modeling the Monokini. In 2012, she said of the image, "The shot seen around the world. Think of something in your life that took 1/60th of a second to do. Now, imagine having to spend the rest of your life talking about it. I think it's a beautiful photograph, but oh, am I tired of talking about it.”"<ref name=pinto>{{cite web|last=Pinto|first=Phil|title=Peggy Moffitt: The Total Look|url=http://www.nowness.com/day/2012/5/18=|accessdate=January 11 January, 2013|format=video|date=May 18, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/v50/peggy-moffitt-by-julie-goldenfan |title=Peggy Moffitt |accessdate=October 7, 2015 |magazine=Vogue |date=September 2014 |number=769 |page=582 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928064516/http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/v50/peggy-moffitt-by-julie-goldenfan |archivedate=September 28, 2015 }}</ref>

| ''[[Girls Town (1959 film)|Girls Town]]''

[[Category:19401937 births]]

[[Category:LivingDeaths peoplefrom dementia in California]]

[[Category:ModelsFemale models from Los Angeles]]