Twiggy
Dame Lesley Lawson DBE (née Hornby; born 19 September 1949), widely known by the mononym nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress, and singer. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London.
For other uses, see Twiggy (disambiguation).
Twiggy
- Twiggy
- Twig the Wonderkid
- Model
- actress
- singer
1966–present
1
5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Blonde
Blue
Models 1
Twiggy was initially known for her thin build and the androgynous appearance considered to result from her big eyes, long eyelashes, and short hair.[1][2] She was named "The Face of 1966" by the Daily Express[3] and voted British Woman of the Year.[4] By 1967, she had modelled in France, Japan, and the US, and had landed on the covers of Vogue and The Tatler. Her fame had spread worldwide.[4]
After modelling, Twiggy enjoyed a successful career as a screen, stage, and television actress. Her role in The Boy Friend (1971) brought her two Golden Globe Awards. In 1983, she made her Broadway debut in the musical My One and Only, for which she earned a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She later hosted her own series, Twiggy's People, in which she interviewed celebrities; she also appeared as a judge on the reality show America's Next Top Model. Her 1998 autobiography Twiggy in Black and White entered the best-seller lists.[3] Since 2005, she has modelled for Marks and Spencer, most recently to promote their recent rebranding, appearing in television advertisements and print media, alongside Myleene Klass, Erin O'Connor, Lily Cole, and others.[5] In 2012, she worked alongside Marks & Spencer's designers to launch an exclusive clothing collection for the M&S Woman range.[6]
Early life[edit]
Lesley Hornby was born on 19 September 1949 and raised in Neasden (originally in Middlesex, now a suburb of north-west London).[7] She was the third daughter of Nellie Lydia (née Reeman), a factory worker for a printing firm, and William Norman Hornby, a master carpenter and joiner from Lancashire.[8] Their first daughter, Shirley, had been born 15 years earlier; their second, Vivien, had been born 7 years earlier. According to Twiggy, her maternal grandfather was Jewish.[9] However, her mother's genealogy, which was examined on the series Who Do You Think You Are? in 2014, does not contain Jewish ancestry.[10]
Twiggy's mother taught her to sew from an early age. She used this skill to make her own clothing.[11] She attended the Brondesbury and Kilburn High School.
Modelling career (1965–1970)[edit]
1965–1967[edit]
Twiggy is one of the first international supermodels and a fashion icon of the 1960s.[12] Her greatest influence is Jean Shrimpton,[13][14] whom Twiggy considers to be the world's first supermodel.[14] She has said she based her "look" on Pattie Boyd.[15] Twiggy herself has been described as the successor to Shrimpton.[1][16][17][18]
In January 1966, aged 16, she had her hair coloured and cut short in London at Leonard of Mayfair,[19] owned by celebrity hairdresser Leonard.[20] The hair stylist was looking for models on whom to try out his new crop haircut and he styled her hair in preparation for a few test head shots.[21] A professional photographer Barry Lategan took several photos for Leonard, which the hairdresser hung in his salon. Deirdre McSharry, a fashion journalist from the Daily Express, saw the images and asked to meet the young girl.[22]
McSharry 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".[12][23] In it, the copy read: "The Cockney kid with a face to launch a thousand shapes... and she's only 16".[24]
Hornby's career quickly took off.[23] She was short for a model at 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m), weighed eight stone (51 kg; 110 lb) and had a 31–23–32 (79–58–81 cm) figure, "with a new kind of streamlined, androgynous sex appeal".[25] Her hairdresser boyfriend, Nigel Davies, became her manager, changed his name to Justin de Villeneuve, and persuaded her to change her name to Twiggy (from "Twigs", her childhood nickname).[26] De Villeneuve credits himself for Twiggy's discovery and her modelling success, and his version of events is often quoted in other biographies. In her 1998 book Twiggy In Black and White, she says that she met Justin through his brother, when she worked as a Saturday girl at a hairdressers in London. This is where she began to see the models in the magazines, but never thought she could do something like that. Jean Shrimpton was her idol, so she grew her hair long to look like her, before having to have it cut off for her headshots by Barry Lategan.[21][27] Ten years her senior, De Villeneuve managed her lucrative career for seven years, overseeing her finances and enterprises during her heyday as a model.
Twiggy was soon seen in all the leading fashion magazines, commanding fees of £80 an hour, bringing out her own line of clothes called "Twiggy Dresses" in 1967,[28] and taking the fashion world by storm.[29] "I hated what I looked like," she said once, "so I thought everyone had gone stark raving mad."[23] Twiggy's look centred on three qualities: her stick-thin figure, a boyishly short haircut and strikingly dark eyelashes.[30] Her signature look was achieved in part by applying three layers of false eyelashes.[31]
Later career[edit]
2010–present[edit]
Twiggy remains in the forefront of fashion for women of her age.[48] She was one of the few famous celebrities to survive being cut from the Marks & Spencer fashion team in 2009–2010, when Dannii Minogue joined her for the spring/summer women's wear campaign.[49][50]
In 2010, she started a Home Shopping Network fashion line called the "Twiggy London" collection.[51]
On 21 November 2011, she released an album, Romantically Yours, through EMI. A collection of pop and easy listening standards spanning several generations, the album features versions of such compositions as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Blue Moon", "My Funny Valentine", "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me", and London anthem "Waterloo Sunset". The album also includes a guest vocal appearance by Twiggy's daughter, Carly Lawson, on Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", a guitar solo by Bryan Adams, and a version of Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting" featuring duet vocals with the American songwriter himself. In 2016, archive images of Twiggy, alongside images of Shrimpton and Jane Birkin, were used for Tod's Fall/Winter campaign.[52]
On 22 November 2022, actress and filmmaker Sadie Frost teamed up with Twiggy to create an interactive virtual documentary about Twiggy's life.[53] On 16 May 2023, the documentary's final scene was produced live at Cannes Marché du Film Festival (the Cannes Film Festival) 2023, in just 48 hours, using the on-site virtual production stage of film studio, Film Soho. Alongside this, a live virtual experience by metaverse company, Hadean, and live event visualisation solutions provider, disguise, made use of Unreal Engine to create a photo-realistic recreation of London's Carnaby Street in the 1960s, engaging users with interactive elements based on Twiggy's memories of the time.[54]
Honours[edit]
She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to fashion, to the arts and to charity. Her appointment appeared in The London Gazette under her married name, Lesley Lawson.[55]
Personal life[edit]
Twiggy married American actor Michael Witney in 1977. Their daughter, Carly, was born in 1978.[21] They remained married until his death in 1983 from a heart attack.[56]
She met Leigh Lawson in 1984.[3] In 1988, they worked on the film Madame Sousatzka and married that year in Sag Harbor, New York (on Long Island). The couple reside in Kensington, London[57] and own a home in Southwold, Suffolk.[58][59]
On Twiggy's official website, she states she is a supporter of breast cancer research, animal welfare, and anti-fur campaigns.[3] She was one of the celebrities, including Tom Hiddleston, Jo Brand, E. L. James, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Rachel Riley, to design and sign her own card for the UK-based charity Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. The campaign was launched by crafting company Stampin' Up! UK, and the cards were auctioned off on eBay during May 2014.[60]
Albums
Singles