Patricia Peterson, a pioneering fashion editor for The New York Times who later became a vice president at the department store Henri Bendel, died at home in Manhattan on June 15. She was 99.
During her tenure at The Times, from 1957 to 1977, Ms. Peterson documented a changing society through its styles, from pantsuits to miniskirts, caftans to ballet flats and everything in between, during a time of seismic shifts in fashion norms. She tracked and set trends, introducing readers to designers like Andre Courreges, and featuring photographers including Diane Arbus, Hiro, Duane Michals, Louis Faurer, Guy Bourdin, Francesco Scavullo, Cecil Beaton, and Gösta Peterson, her husband and a frequent collaborator. She used illustrations by Andy Warhol before he became a superstar.
In 1967, Ms. Peterson convinced the British supermodel Twiggy to do her first American fashion shoot for The Times; Mr. Peterson took the photographs. That same year, she “made history when, under her direction, Fashions of The Times became the first major American fashion magazine to put a photograph of a Black model on the cover: 19-year-old Naomi Sims, shot by Mr. Peterson,” Penelope Green wrote in Ms. Peterson’s obituary for The Times.
She was not, however, able to convince The Times to publish an Arbus photograph of a Black girl and white boy holding hands in a 1970 Children’s Fashion section.
“The Petersons’ all-in enthusiasm stemmed from their interest in art, politics, music, architecture, travel and more, as well as having not only a keen interest in others, but also acute listening skills,” Rosemary Feitelberg wrote in Ms. Peterson’s Women’s Wear Daily obituary. “Their originality in the studio or on the street reflected how they challenged fashion norms and questioned societal issues.”
“When, in the late 1960s, Manhattan restaurants were turning away ladies who lunched if they showed up in pantsuits — never mind shorts — Ms. Peterson put together a photographic essay showing models being shunned by restaurant maitres d’,” according to her Times obituary.
Ms. Peterson went to work for Henri Bendel in 1977, becoming a vice president in charge of advertising, fashion, and promotion. There, she would continue to collaborate with her husband, producing playful ads that conveyed the spirit of Bendel. She worked with such guest artists as Edward Gorey on the store’s much-anticipated window displays.
She retired from the company in 1986 and became a docent in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, working with the museum until 2015.
The Petersons had a historic farmhouse on Windmill Lane in Amagansett, where they were again trendsetters, intentionally allowing the grass in the front yard to grow tall and wild, much to the consternation of neighbors with more manicured properties. They had a large circle of friends here that included Helen S. Rattray, the late editor and publisher of The Star, and were fixtures at Indian Wells Beach.
She loved to read and was a huge fan of the Amagansett Library, and enjoyed gardening, the Walking Dunes, Napeague Bay, and the vegetables at Balsam Farms, her family said.
“She was constantly curious about things, and she was a big people-lover,” said her son, Jan Peterson. “She loved to engage with and learn about people.”
“I think she left both my brother and me that gift to keep your eyes open . . . to always just keep peeling back the onion,” her daughter, Annika Peterson, said.
Ms. Peterson was born in Chicago on June 6, 1926, to Le Roi Louis and the former Marion Strunk. She grew up in Port Washington and in 1948 graduated from Northwestern University, where she majored in fine arts and was fashion editor of the student magazine The Purple Parrot. She worked for Marshall Field in Chicago after graduation and married Ward V. Evans in 1949. They divorced in 1953, and that year she took a job with Mademoiselle magazine in Manhattan, working there for three years before joining The Times in 1956.
She and Mr. Peterson were married on July 10, 1954. Her husband died in 2017. She is survived by her daughter, Annika Peterson, her son, Jan Peterson, and his wife, Lori Barrett-Peterson, all of New York and Amagansett.
They have suggested memorial contributions to the Amagansett Library, P.O. Box 2550, Amagansett 11930, or online at amagansettlibrary.org.
