Twiggy reluctantly took her image to the next level, complementing her elfin-like face and huge blue eyes with a pixie hairdo in a unique design that has been imitated over the decades.
Though she altered the fashion industry with her young style, the famed cover girl recently claimed that she didn’t want the androgynous buzz that defined the appearance of the Swinging Sixties and that she was simply too shy to turn down the work of a prominent hairstylist at a “posh salon.”
Twiggy, born Lesley Hornby in the United Kingdom, was looking for a fashionable new style to help launch her career in 1966.
Standing at 5’6″, the aspiring young model was told she was too short to compete in the competitive fashion industry.
The former supermodel, who turns 74 on September 19, remembers having her shoulder-length hair groomed for some test “head shots” at London’s House of Leonard and meeting the legendary British stylist, Leonard Lewis (professionally known as Leonard of Mayfair).
Lewis was looking for models to test his new crop haircut.
In a recent guest appearance on Jessie Ware’s podcast, “Table Manners,” the former style star admitted that she has never wanted her hair chopped short.
“I went in to have it shampooed and set and Leonard saw me, and he said, ‘Let me do my new haircut on you,’” Twiggy told Ware during the podcast. “I’d been growing my hair, for a moment I kind of went, ‘I don’t know whether I want my hair cut.’ But I was in this very posh salon in Mayfair so I was a bit too shy to say I don’t want it done, and I kind of nodded.”
The next day, Twiggy returned to the salon and sat in Lewis’ chair, bracing herself for what was to come.
“I went back the next day and I was in there for seven hours, where he cut it and then I went out and had it colored and then re-cut. Oh, it was mad,” she said with a laugh.
And though the androgynous look wasn’t what Twiggy was chasing, she quickly understood why Lewis earned notoriety as a stylist.
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After perfecting her golden blonde crop, Lewis had British photographer, Barry Lategan, snap Twiggy’s pictures.
“Leonard put it up in the salon and a journalist saw it,” Twiggy said, referring to the Daily Express fashion editor Deirdre McSharry, who while having Lewis style her hair, saw Twiggy’s daring do in the photos. “That’s how it all happened…When that haircut started, when that photograph was taken, that was the pivotal moment.”
The pixie cut accented her huge blue eyes, which she accentuated with mascara on her lower lashes.
Twiggy told Vogue about the inspiration for her doe eyes: “I was also constantly playing around with make-up at home. I had a rag doll that had those spikey eyelashes, so I bought false eyelashes for myself and created what became known as my sort of ‘look.’”
The former supermodel also admitted that when she wasn’t at school, she rebelled by wearing cosmetics and miniskirts to Saturday night mod clubs with her friends.
“I went to a grammar school, so it was quite strict. We wore uniforms and makeup was not allowed. So, on the weekends, me and my friends would sit like most teenage girls and play with makeup.” She continued “And that’s how that makeup evolved.”
And the eyes became part of her unique style.
A few weeks after the session for the Daily Express, numerous photos-now classic black and white shots that launched her modeling career with the headline “Twiggy-The Face Of ’66” emerged on the paper’s pages.
The next month, she did her first Vogue shot, and her “life became a whirlwind.”
Twiggy, the classic mod fashion icon, was a role model for many women, and while still in her teens, she became the first celebrity to be utilized as a blueprint for a Twiggy Barbie.
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Twiggy’s name became connected with the groundbreaking British designer Mary Quant, who revolutionized fashion by introducing low hemlines that freed the female leg.
Twiggy retired in 1970 after only a few years of modeling to pursue theater and movie acting, as well as singing.
Her film credits include prominent parts in The Boy Friend (1971), which garnered her two Golden Globes, and Club Paradise (1986), in which she costarred with the late Robin Williams.
The America’s Next Top Model judge also worked on a Marks & Spencer-exclusive fashion collection and appeared in various billboard advertisements.
In 2011, she published the album “Romantically Yours,” which includes cover songs such as “Blue Moon,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” and “Right Here Waiting.” Her only daughter, Carly Lawson (born 1978), performs as a guest vocalist on a few tracks.
The attractive woman is still at the forefront of fashion, having served as an ambassador for L’Oreal and collaborating as a designer with other brands.
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The icon is currently keeping busy with her own podcast, Tea with Twiggy, in which she has personal conversations with her famous pals once a week.
Despite her many accomplishments, Twiggy, one of the most known faces of her generation, believes her success can only be judged by the love she has with her amazing daughter.
After her father, actor Michael Witney, d.i.e.d at the age of 52 during her fifth birthday celebration, Carly was raised by her mother and second husband, Leigh Lawson, whom Twiggy married in 1988.
