100 Most Influential People in Fashion

Fashion Influential #59: Twiggy

British model Twiggy was proclaimed "The Face of '66" by the Daily Express.

TWIGGY Born:
September 19, 1949 in London, England
Friend of:
Barry Lategan, Diana Vreeland, Ken Russell
Influenced:
Stephen Meisel, Kate Moss
Beginnings.
Lesley Hornby wanted to be a fashion designer. She'd laugh off friends' insistences that she should model because she was, in her own words, a "skinny little thing." A haircut and a headshot by Barry Lategan later, one of the most important fashion writers of the '60s was proclaiming Hornby "The Face of '66." Hornby decided to go by Twiggy, a nickname her boyfriend's brother had given her because of her skinny legs.

Career Highs.
Hornby's ascent to fame was immediate. Within three months she was working in Paris and New York. The 17 year-old met the most famous people of the era, from Steve McQueen to Diana Vreeland. She had photo shoots with Richard Avedon. She made more money than the Beatles, at one point. Her wiry, 5'6" frame was the new look of fashion, her face the definition of the mod generation.
I think this obsession with skinniness-it’s weird now. It’s not just models now: it’s gone into that Hollywood thing. I find it worrying, I have to say. The media, I think, should be a bit more responsible. The fashion industry and the magazines push this image, and unfortunately teenage girls are very susceptible to it.
- Lesley Hornby

An article about Twiggy's hair.
Career Lows.
Twiggy stopped modeling, rather abruptly, at the age of 20. She hoped to have a film career after she starred in The Boyfriend, but never reached the same success she had in modeling. Over thirty years later, she came back to the modeling world in an extremely commercial venture, as a host for America's Next Top Model. After five rather uneventful seasons, she left the show and was replaced by Paulina Porizkova.

Legacy.
The skinny, model-as-clotheshanger ideal did not fade away with the end of the '60s. The early '90s saw a resurgence of waifish young things becoming the new industry ideal: supermodel Kate Moss, the most famous of the waifs, is a modern revisitation of the standard Twiggy defined.

Twiggy has said she admires Kate Moss.

Get the Look.
The Twiggy look is so austere, a little goes a long way - so ditch the bronzer and the blush in favor of a sweet pair of eyelashes. Mod fashion was streamlined and minimalist: look for geometric patterns, startling colors, and hemlines way above the knee. A pair of go go boots won't kill you, either.

- Alicia