Peggy Moffitt: The Moffitt Movie

Claxton had worked with Gernreich. Moffitt had grown up enough to become Gernreich's model and develop a fearless rapport with him. "We all collaborated together," says Moffitt. "Rudi was the dresser for me. Bill took the pictures. We cut the crap out of the process." The collaboration flourished throughout the sixties, no matter that Claxton and Moffitt lived much of that time in Europe and New York and Rudi stayed an Angeleno. "He hated the fashion rat race in New York," says Moffitt. Each of the three collaborators seems to have had a healthy drive to do what they wanted to do and avoid what they disliked. Claxton shot portraits of Hollywood people, particularly Steve McQueen, whose portraits made for an entire book. Moffitt had another run-in with cinema and again ran the other way: You can see her in Michelangelo Antonioni's classic Blowup, but not due to much effort on her part.

"I was not someone who concentrated on making the scene," says Moffitt. "I've been to thousands of jazz concerts but I've never been to a single rock 'n roll concert." That's a little surprising to anyone who remembers the famous '60s Time cover on which Moffitt appeared, along with model Leon Bing, flanking Gernreich, whom the cover story described as "The most way-out, far-ahead designer in the U.S." Way-out and far-ahead as Gernreich may have been, Moffitt contends that the magic circle she formed with Rudi Gernreich and William Claxton did not define itself as part of the '60s, but rather defined a timeless aesthetic.

"I look at fashion magazines now," says Moffitt, "and go, 'There it is, there it is, there...' Everybody has knocked Rudi off." He didn't really mind being knocked off, according to Moffitt, but after so many years and a number of retrospectives, one just ending at the Phoenix Art Museum, Gernreich has still not, from any fair perspective, been elevated above the level The New York Times established in '61 by calling him "California's most successful export since the orange."

"I can't do more for him than hope that he's acknowledged," says Moffitt of the partnership she and Claxton have created with Comme des Garcons' designer Rei Kawakubo and Milanese fashion maven Carla Sozzani. As to whether the topless bathing suit will end up part of the "tribute" to add even more tedium to future cocktail parties, Moffitt is beyond trying to direct that part of her personal movie, "as long as I don't have to wear it.

Keeping the Dream Alive

One may be hard-pressed to find a more doggedly determined group of artisans than those who restore classic L.A. homes. One such person is TV-producer-cum-designer Eric Allen, who purchased the Rudi Gernreich estate (featured on the following pages) in 2000 and, along with his partner, designer Jonathan Fousek, spent the next three years restoring it--with no outside help. "We actually took classes at the Home Depot on how to set marble tile," Allen says. "At the end, we could finally say, 'We did it all ourselves,' and then people would go, 'That's great! Which contractor did you hire?' We were like, no, we really did do it all ourselves."

Although restorative touches abound, the house retains much of its "original groovy '60s feel," says Allen, from the bedrooms to the ethereal dining room to the newly restored 50-foot-long bar, which looks out at a dramatic view of Los Angeles "Friends come by for drinks sometimes, and their jaws drop when they catch a view of the skyline," Allen says. "At night, it's like looking out at the Emerald City."

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Daniel Davis

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