Marshall McLuhan summed it all up in 1967 with the comment "Twiggy is an X-ray, not a picture." She was bone thin, except for her huge eyes and fat eye-lashes and she turned the desire to be thin to the desire to be thinnest. Her real name was Lesley Hornby and she started modelling at age 15 when she weighed 41 kg, that was why she became known as 'Twiggy'.

Before she had even turned 18 she had been photographed by Barry Lategan, had her hair cut by Vidal Sassoon, and had worked as a model under a year’s contract to Woman’s Mirror. The daily express named her the ‘face of 66.’

She was the quintessential Quant-type model and was the perfect model for the time. Her thin boyish figure and pale-skin looked great in a mini.  She weighed 6 ½ stone and took size 6 in dresses. She had a small, thin face capped with a boyish haircut and large dark eyes, underlined with pencilled lashes. Twiggy was a natural model of the perfect 60's shape described by John Bates in 1965: ‘narrow body, perfect square shoulders, long legs, small bust.’ This was also perfect according to Vogue fashion authority, Diana Vreeland. Twiggy's wafer-thin, youthful and boyish features set her apart from the older models.

Twiggy was booked by Elle magazine and Vogue and soon became Britain’s most sought after model. Her line ‘It’s not what you’d call a figure, is it?’ became a standard joke, and suddenly everyone was on a diet. By the end of 1966 Twiggy had been voted Woman of the Year, however she was unable to attend due to a nervous teenage rash.

In 1967 Twiggy modelled extensively in France, Japan and the States. Twiggy double’s were springing up as far away as Australia. A wholesale manufacturer, Taramina Textiles, contracted ex-Royal College of Art students Paul Babs and Pamela Proctor to design a ‘Twiggy’ range of clothes which were to be distributed to large stores in Britain. Her image was used on many toys such as board games and paper dolls.

Last updated: June 01, 2003

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