GERNREICH MOON GIRLS

Get through the middle of you week (and protect yourself from those cosmic rays) with this classic William Claxton photo featuring fashion by Rudi Gernreich. Need a larger dose of Moon Girls and Op-inspired threads? Check out the Rudi Gernreich Book by Peggy Moffitt and our article, Mods to Moon Girls. Find Swinging London treasures in Spy Vibe's Amazon Associates Store.

SUNDAY WITH PEGGY MOFFITT

Spend Sunday with model Peggy Moffitt (Blow Up, Who Are You Polly Maggoo?). Peggy became famous in 1964 for modeling Rudi Gernreich's topless bathing suits and for her many collaborations with Gernreich and husband, photographer William Claxton. Peggy below with Steve McQueen and his Ferrari (photo by William Claxton).


The team created a short fashion film in 1967. William Claxton recounts the project in an interview printed in the Times Magazine: “In 1967 Peggy and I had just returned from ’swinging London’ and Paris to work in New York. We were commissioned by a small commercial production company to come up with something which would serve as my ‘reel’ in order to get hired to direct TV commercials. While sitting on our bed at the Algonquin Hotel, we collaborated in writing a shooting script that would show fashion, makeup, and hair on three beautiful models wearing the fashion designs of avant-garde Rudi Gernreich’s collection for that fall. We shot the film on a weekend, had original music composed for the sound track and Basic Black was born. It was very well received, won several awards and has been referred to as the first fashion video.” Basic Black (1967):

Peggy Moffitt looks through her 1999 Rudi Gernreich book, and talks about her collaborations, the 60s, and the recent loss of her husband, William Claxton in this 2009 interview at her home in Los Angeles:

FASHION W PEGGY MOFFITT & EDDA DELL'ORSO

Start your Spy Vibe weekend with an amazing mid-1960s fashion show with Peggy Moffitt and others decked out in our fave Mod and Moongirl outfits. Will those plastic visor-helmets ever make a comeback? The vocals for the show are provided by the siren of Italian soundtracks, Edda Dell'Orso. It may be raining here in the Bay area, but the weekend is looking Space-Age FAB here on Spy Vibe!

More about model Peggy Moffitt and Spy Vibe fashion from the excellent Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandise: "Hers is the face that launched a thousand ripples through the fashion world when she wore the world's first topless bathing suit. "Designer of the future" Rudi Gernreich considered Peggy Moffitt to be his muse and model of choice for his controversial designs. With her Kabuki-inspired face painting, Peggy created her own unique look in the Sixties. Gernreich collaborated with super hair stylist Vidal Sassoon to create Peggy's trademark hairstyle. He gave her a short helmet haircut, with precise geometric bangs cut right to her eyebrows. She also created her own makeup style with heavy black and white eyeliner and long false eyelashes to exaggerate her huge dark eyes. She took the term "strike a pose" very seriously in front of the camera. She made Gernreich's clothes all the more extreme with her striking presence."

Spy Vibers may also want to check out the Rudi Gernreich Book (Rizzoli) by Peggy Moffitt and husband/photographer William Claxton at Arcana Books here. Copies also available through Amazon here. Taschen did a reprint, as well.