Talking About Twiggy

It is about time I did a post on  one of the most prominent icons from the 60s and  the first ever international supermodel- Twiggy.  She was discovered at the young age of 16 and quickly went on to become a teen idol and one of the most prominent faces in the fashion world.

To her credit, she was ‘The Face of 1966’ in Daily Express, voted the British Woman of the year, appeared in over 13 different photo shoots for international Vogue editions and became an modeling sensations in France, America, Britain and Japan. The Twiggy phenomena soon became a  sort of a cult and magazines such as Life, Newsweek and New Yorker wrote several articles about her success and the New Yorker was said to have devoted nearly a 100 pages to this subject!

Twiggy was best known for her thin androgynous build (at 5’6'she weighed a mere 41kg/90lb.), big dark eyes, short boyish haircut and strikingly long eyelashes which later came to be known as Twiggys. Describing how she achieved prominent eyes, Twiggy said, Back then I was layering three pairs of false eyelashes over my own and would paint extra ‘twigs’ on my skin underneath.

Twiggy also brought out her own clothing line from which the Twiggy dress went on to become equally as popular as the super model herself. After modeling Twiggy went on to become a successful television and screen and stage actress. Her autobiography Twiggy in Black and White is a best seller.

Although Twiggy has faced much criticism for promoting an unhealthy skinny image amongst young women and for glamorizing thin, boyish androgynous frames that gave rise to eating disorders amongst teenagers , the model has spoken out against the recent trend of waif thin models explaining that her own skinniness was natural and genetic and that she has always been a sensible eater.

I consider Twiggy a formative character in the history of fashion. While I don’t quite aspire to be like her idolize her, I do like her cute boyish charm and the ‘fun’ that came across in all her photographs. I also love her dramatic eye make-up and short dresses. Diana Vreeland once described her as, She's no flash in the pan. She is the mini-girl in the min-era. She's delicious looking."- and that sort of sums up Twiggy for me. 

Here are some incredible Twiggy shots...

 

… and it isn’t hard to see why I find her so very captivating. There are so many of such gorgeous pictures all over the net and it was an extremely difficult task for me to put up just a selected few here.  What do you think about Twiggy?  Have a lovely Vintage Wednesday!