Basic Black, First fashion short film

One of the first editorial short films, Produced and directed by William Claxton featuring models Peggy Moffitt, Leon Bing and Ellen Harth wearing the fall collection of the designer Rudi Gernreich's

Claxton, Moffitt & Gernreich were one of the most famous trio of the 60's. William Claxton started to photograph Rudi Gernerich work at the mid 50's and by that time he was dating Peggy Moffitt,which at that time wasn't yet famous, but then at the beginning of the 60's Moffitt started to model for Gerenich becoming her muse and collaborator.


“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.”
Claxton