70y Supermodel Twiggy, the face & s ICON
WITH huge eyes and long skinny limbs, the stick-thin 16 year old resembled a startled fawn.
She looked striking but certainly did not consider herself beautiful.
But the world thought very differently and the teenager’s face, hair, body and spirit would come to define the youth culture revolution that was sweeping Britain.
No wonder Twiggy, a symbol of the Swinging Sixties, has a right to the title of the first supermodel.
And as she approaches her 70th birthday on September 19, she is still working hard and doing things she loves. Earlier this year she was made a Dame for her services to fashion, arts and charity.
She was transformed from schoolgirl Lesley Hornby to world famous model Twiggy in 1966 after a journalist saw her photos in a Mayfair hair salon.
She was wearing a smocked mini dress, had painted-on eyelashes to accentuate her eyes and had a radical crop haircut.
She thought she looked unattractive and said: “I thought everyone had gone raving mad. I don’t think it was beautiful.”
But the fashion world disagreed and the meteoric rise of Twiggy, a name derived from her school nickname Twigs in Neasden, North London, had begun.
She was taken to Paris for an American Vogue shoot with celebrated photographer Richard Avedon.
Catwalk
It was her first time away from parents Nell and Norman and the whole experience was a baptism of fire.
She said: “I got terribly homesick and cried myself to sleep most nights at the start.” But she was clearly a big hit.
She soon designed her collection of cult mod dresses Twiggy
Frocks which became a worldwide success.
And Twiggy Barbie in 1967 was the first time the doll was based on a real person.
She also found fame as an actress and a model away from the catwalk.
Twiggy said: “I know I’m famous precisely because of what happened to me in the 60s. I modelled for only four years before quitting to concentrate on acting.”
She knows she is stuck with her 60s persona “which bears little relation to who I am”.
In 1971 Twiggy starred in the film The Boy Friend and won two Golden Globes before turning her hand to pop music and appearing in Broadway show My One And Only.
She had cameo in 1980s hit film comedy The Blues Brothers and in 1986 starred as Josie in The Little Match Girl, a TV adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen’s tale.
She said: “My One And Only in 1983 was major for me. I didn’t think I could get up on stage. I thought I’d die of fright. I was really shy.” Twiggy married actor Michael Witney in 1977 and had their daughter Carly a year later. But sadly he died in 1983.
In 1988 she married actor Leigh Lawson and they are still happily together. She said: “We are best friends. I love him and I know he loves me. He makes me laugh.”
In her 50s Twiggy became the face of Marks & Spencer and modellin modelling their comf comfy but elegant knits gave them a real boost.
Photographer Terry O’neill said: “Whenever I worked with Twiggy I’d always come away with so many winning shots.
“Twiggy was always such a nice person – she was so different looking from everyone else. And the camera loved her. Everyone did. That’s why she’s hands-down still the most famous model ever. She’s fab. There’s no one else like Twiggy!” Actress, author, recording artist and designer
Twi g g y , w h o appeared on the
BBC’S Who Do
You Think You Are in 2014, is proud to be a symbol of the best of British.
She said: “I’m an ambassador f or
Britain. I think it’s the best country in the world.”
When Prince Charles made her
Dame Lesley Lawson she jokingly told him it was “about time”.
Twiggy said her late parents would have been so proud.
She added: “But hopefully they are looking down and they know.”