Twiggy: Icon of Style and Revolution in 1960s Fashion

The Beginning of Twiggy

Twiggy was able to create the style of the '60s and to abandon the model of the woman in the flesh. They took their cue from her many models like Audrey Hepburn and Edie Sedgwick.

Lesley Lawson (born on September 1949), known by the nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress and singer, an idol for millions of teenage girls, with a face of an angel, remembered as one of the first international supermodels and a fashion icon of the 1960s. She was initially known for her thin build (thus her nickname) and her androgynous look that began to emerge in the 1960s, consisting of large eyes, long eyelashes, and short hair: she been described as the successor to Shrimpton. She was short for a model at 167 cm weighed 51 kg and had a 31-23-32 figure, with a new kind of streamlined sex appeal.

What was the Rise of Twiggy?

By the age of 17, Twiggy was one of the most famous faces on the planet. When she appeared with this short hair cut which was an extraordinary transformation in her because her face came out more prominently, she's got a beautifully modeled face and totally well proportioned, there was something very new because she had painted her own eyelashes below her eyes and this was something no one had ever done."I hated what I looked like," she said once.

In January 1966, her hairdresser coloured her hair and cut short them. A professional photographer took several photos from the salon of hairdresser. McSharry, a fashion journalist from the Daily Express, saw the images and asked to meet the young girl. Fashion journalist arranged to have more photos taken. A few weeks later the publication featured an article and images of Hornby, declaring her "The Face of '66"and she’s only 16.

The Career of Twiggy

Her boyfriend, became her manager: ten years her senior, he managed her career for seven years, overseeing her finances and enterprises during her heyday. Twiggy was soon seen in all the leading fashion magazines, bringing out her own line of clothes called "Twiggy Dresses" in 1967, and taking the fashion world by storm. One month after the Daily Express article, Twiggy posed for her first shoot for Vogue. A year later, she had appeared in 13 separate fashion shoots in international Vogue editions. On 1967 she became an international sensation, modelling in France, Japan and America. Vogue described her as an "extravaganza that makes the look of the sixties". Twiggy was, the most visible commodity Britain produced that year, and [America] generously complied with the hype, Twiggy lunch boxes, Twiggy lashes, an assortment of Twiggy-endorsed cosmetics.

Twiggy Beyond Fashion

Twiggy went on to become an actress in film, stage and television: she won two Golden Globe awards, she has recorded many albums encompassing a variety of styles: she has won two silver discs, two chart albums and hit singles. She'll last a couple of weeks', a bystander quipped in 1967 when she took New York by storm. Since 2005 Twiggy has been part of the phenomenally successful Marks & Spencer advertising campaign. Twiggy has also been a guest judge on reality show America's Next Top Model opposite the shows. As a designer, Twiggy's has her own successful clothing line for US based shopping to the channel HSN.