Twiggy
Notting Hill in the seventies was a very different place to what it is now - where posh totty came to get its bohemian artist fix, and dotty aristocrats punctuated the not-yet rarified atmosphere. The heady combination was perfect for one wide-eyed skinny innocent: an androgynous waif who nimbly crossed the social and postcode divide – namely,
a schoolgirl called Lesley Hornby.
Lesley's huge staring eyes and tiny frame caught the imagination of just the right people at just the right time, seeing her rise to fame almost overnight. Launched with
a daring haircut by Leonard and photographs by Barry Lategan in 1966, Lesley was nicknamed ‘Twiggy’ for her skinny legs, and so a supermodel was born. “I never planned to be a model,” she says.
“It just happened.”
Twiggy was lucky, she admits, to be launched into the modelling world almost by accident. As a fashion-mad London teenager, the model was a devotee of Biba before it became the place to shop.
“Twiggs used to come into Biba before she was well known, in great vintage pieces, such as forties coats with huge shoulders,” Barbara Hulanicki told the Daily Mail in celebration of the model's birthday. "I used to think, ‘God, that girl is amazing. She looks like Garbo’. Despite all the celebrities coming into the shop, Twiggy was the one who counted; she was a superstar. We worked together, making clothes for shoots and parties, Twiggy modelling Biba make-up, doing the interiors for her dressing room for the pantomime Cinderella in 1974 and for her Notting Hill flat. I remember being in the back of the car with her on her way to appear on Parkinson and watching her slap on her make-up, her boots caked in mud - she didn’t care. She was always terribly funny and very loyal.”
Four decades on, and Twiggy's been
shot by some of the world's greatest photographers including Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Melvin Sokolsky,
Ronald Traeger, Norman Parkinson and Annie Leibovitz. Such is the universal appeal of the Twiggy photograph that an exhibition dedicated entirely to her work is now on at The National Portrait Gallery;
its September launch coinciding with the model’s 60th birthday.
And it's not all about modelling either. From early black and white highly stylised fashion photographs to relaxed portraits
of Twiggy taken by friends, Twiggy:
A Life in Photographs reveals her life as model, mother, singer and film, television and Broadway star, with each picture part
of her story.
“One of my favourite images was taken by Norman Parkinson when I was
pregnant with my daughter Carly,” she says. “I love the fact that she was there
with me in the photograph, despite being firmly under wraps!
“Some of the most well-known pictures were taken by Ronald Traeger who really captured the era of swinging London.
His shot of me on a bicycle, laughing,
has been reproduced in postcard and
poster form all over the world. Traeger mostly photographed me outside on location, and I have happy memories
of running up and down the Kings Road
in Chelsea and him following me with
a camera.”
Twiggy was a natural trend-setter, with her first published photograph appearing in the street fashion series ‘What People
Are Wearing’ of London Life magazine in January 1966.
The same year, a visit to top Mayfair salon House of Leonard saw her life change forever when she was spotted by Leonard himself, who was looking for models to try out his new crop haircut. Photos were taken and a few days later they were shown to Deirdre McSharry, the then fashion editor of the Daily Express who launched Twiggy as The Face of 1966. The young model with a fresh, new look took the fashion world by storm and was soon being photographed across the world.
The story could have ended there, but Twiggy's talents saw her diversify and she was soon making a name for herself as an actress and singer. In 1971 Ken Russell cast her in the film version of The Boyfriend and so strong was her performance that she won two Golden Globe Awards. “That kick-started both my acting and singing careers,” she says. “Modelling was something I was lucky enough to do because I had the right look at the time so performing live on stage was much scarier. Starring on Broadway in the award-winning musical My One And Only in the Eighties was a real highlight of my career.”
A fan of big musical numbers, Twiggy’s latest album, Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance, celebrates the music of the twenties, thirties and forties with a collection of songs by Noel Coward, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. “These are songs by some of the great writers of the time,” she says. “They have an elegance and timelessness about them that makes them as witty and musically clever as they were when they were written.”
She's still modelling, with campaigns for Marks & Spencer among her recent projects. “I’m lucky that I’m at a stage in my life when I can pick and choose who
I work for,” she says. “Even in the early days, modelling was much less cut-throat and a lot more innocent then, so I was spared all of the competitiveness that has made the industry so tough today.”
Her life behind closed doors, she says, is very low-key. She’s still in London and shares her life with actor husband Leigh Lawson, immersing herself in her great loves of cooking and dressmaking when she has any time to spare. “I started dressmaking when I was a kid,” she says.
“I was fashion-mad and wanted to recreate the styles I couldn’t afford to buy. I used to make loads of things for my daughter when she was young and am have been involved in several fashion ranges over the years which I’ve loved working on. I like to get really hands-on with these rather than just be a name attached to a brand.”
Surprisingly perhaps, eating is something Twiggy clearly enjoys too. “I was lucky that when I was young I was naturally skinny so I could eat just about anything,” she says. “Twiggy was a nickname given to me by one of my brother’s friends as I was all legs, and it stuck. These days I have to watch what I eat a bit more but I love cooking for friends and family.”
She still can’t quite believe she’s 60, she says with a smile. “I certainly don't feel 60. It’s only when I look back over the old photos that I realise how much I've done. It’s a great privilege to still be in demand
40 years on.”
Twiggy: A Life in Photographs runs until 24 March 2010 at the National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE, 020 7306 0055, www.npg.org.uk
Twiggy's latest Album Gotta Sing,
Gotta Dance is available from Stage Door Records (www.stagedoorrecords.com)