PEGGY DILLARD-TOONE

MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE

IIt’s easy to lose yourself in New York City, especially nestled into a cozy tree-lined block of brownstones. Peggy Dillard-Toone, a legendary supermodel and artist, contentedly tucked away, is a radical homesteader who staked her claim here in Harlem 30 years ago with a vigilante elegance that held her neighborhood together. Along with her husband of 28 years, artist Lloyd Toone, and a changing cast of friends, she has restored a home that is an ongoing experiment in design, art, and imaginative living.

Peggy has been creating her own world as if the rest of the world did not exist, yet somehow conscious of the needs around her; she has designed her own lifestyle with remarkable consistency and brought people together to revitalize the neighborhood.  

 The Toones purchased their brownstone in 1980, now a multi-million dollar gem located in the historic Mt. Morris Park district of Harlem; one of many brilliant moves Peggy has made in her life. “While others in the fashion and entertainment industry were indulging in the merrymaking of their success with their tonic of choice, Peggy was becoming a wife, buying homes and creating businesses,” a friend remembers. “She knew then, how to brand herself.”  Boasting a twenty-five year career in the fashion industry and a legendary status as the second African American high fashion model to appear on the cover of Vogue, Peggy Dillard-Toone is much more than just a pretty face. 

 Before Peggy finished college at Pratt, she had graced two Vogue Magazine covers and one Mademoiselle, besides spending her junior and senior years flying back and forth to Japan as the first lingerie model for Vassarette in Tokyo.

 It all seemed to flow effortlessly, however Peggy was very deliberate in her decision-making throughout life. She attributes her choices to her foundation in Greenville, South Carolina, as the 13th child born in her family. And she knew early on that she would pursue a design career in New York City. The guiding spirit in Peggy’s life is unmistakably her mother, who, succeeding her grandfather, had been a successful tailor, and too, was a visionary and very forward thinking. Peggy learned to sew her own clothes and had her first business at the age of 13 sewing for her plus-sized music teacher, and her teacher’s family. She was into the Butterick and Vogue patterns and eventually began revising and creating her own patterns. In hindsight, Peggy realized that as her mother sewed for many people in town, from hats and clothes, to upholstery, curtains, and home furnishings, they, as children, worked alongside cutting and sewing, which were major items for kids to produce. But, they did. Peggy learned to make custom items like pleated curtains, corded bedspreads and ruffled pieces, seemingly very difficult tasks, however their mother never made them feel like anything was too big for them to do. 

 Although a career in fashion and design seemed the natural progression after Peggy finished high school at age 15, she initially came to New York’s Pratt Institute on a four-year scholarship for architectural design. During the early teen years she recalls drawing luxury homes and coming to New York with the intent to build buildings, “Greenville wasn’t a place with skyscrapers, so that wasn’t a part of my orientation, but that’s what Pratt was gearing up for and the World Trade Centers were being built at the time.” She remembers telling one of the older instructors that the World Trade Center design was like a chimney and that it would fall because it was out of harmony with the earth. Responding to her comment, southern drawl, and hot pants, the instructor suggested that she change majors.

 He responded, “You know darling, I think you would feel a little better and you might graduate from this school in fashion.”

Peggy became a model as the result of being a student, as she explains. Her career took off in a very uncanny way, without a portfolio or an agent. Preparing for shows as a student, she would visit many of the showrooms in the fashion district, and the designers would ask her to do their shows. That is where the press and Vogue first discovered Peggy. She said that it was at one of the shows that Vogue asked to see her book, “I had to go back to the dorm and get a friend of mine, James Shrugs. He was a freshman at Pratt, and he did my entire portfolio in black and white. I wore a tam and a turtleneck and Vogue loved it.”

SHERON CHIN-BARNES

She toured after graduating Pratt and at times worked up to as many as 40 shows within a two-week period. She asserts taking a student’s approach throughout her career, managing, and marketing herself as if she herself was the product on the shelf. 

Peggy and Lloyd, an accomplished artist, have been married now for nearly thirty years in what sounds like the dream romance. They met at the Studio Museum in Harlem. and as Peggy shares, with her eyes still gleaming from the memory, “So there we were, Sunday afternoon, both of us looking at the masters, and it was like love at first sight.” They married two years after their meeting. Although she had not planned to marry young, in her early 20’s, she says that there are those times when you just know, and besides she had come from a family that raised them to marry. 

After a brief reflective pause, Peggy says with a proud reserve, “We represent the possibilities, we beat the odds.” The Toone’s may be viewed as the first new wave of gentrification in Harlem and they persevered through the many neighborhood changes. Though their now prestigious block was never unpopulated, there were many rooming houses, known as SRO’s (single room occupancies). Over time they were able to watch the block go down to about five buildings, then over that thirty-year period watch the homes all rebuilt, familiar and fond of those that passed through and those who stayed. It is as though all the eras and histories are now pressing in all at once, contributing to the complexity of this new experience. 

The Toone’s own a home in South Carolina, too, but their home in Harlem is very much a part of who they are and who they have become. Peggy says she fell in love with Harlem. They learned to be creative and manage property on a long-term basis even with limited financial resources at times. One of the most interesting and creative projects  has been using their home for production purposes, as a location for movies. Diana Ross used the Toone home for her ABC movie, Double Platinum, with Brandy. They affectionately remember Ms. Ross employing many people in their neighborhood and laying out a daily breakfast spread, on the block, fit for royalty. Other projects include episodes of New York Undercover, and music videos for Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T.  She smiles as she remembers; “We’ve had a lot of fun here over the years.”