Wednesday, July 15, 2009

National Portrait Gallery Announces Exhibition to Celebrate Twiggy's 60th Birthday






At seventeen, Leslie Hornby took hold of the world. At twenty-one, she let it go. She was the original waif, a '60 phenomenon, a superstar. She was TWIGGY.

1966 Leslie Hornby, seventeen at the time, was a student at Brondesbury High School in Kilburn. Her classmates had already found her a nickname: They call her "Sticks," with good reason. At five-foot-four and just ninety pounds, young Leslie looks more like a twig than a full plant.

A darling girl with a strong Cockney accent and a love for pickled beans, Leslie was an average student - a suburban kid leading a quiet teenager's life. Every Saturday, to make extra pocket money, she worked as a shampoo girl at a neighborhood hairdresser. She has no idea what fate is holding in store for her.

It was in that small hairdresser shop that Leslie met Nigel Davies, a young dandy with a stall at the Chelsea flea market. More observant than most, he had been watching Leslie. He took her to fashionable hairdresser Vidal Sasson, and has her cut a very short, boyish style. Then it was off to Mary Quant, the mod fashion queen of the '60s for new clothes. Finally, Nigel Davies, who would later go by the name of Justin de Villenueve takes his little Twiggy (a much better name for a top model...) to meet the editors-in-chief of all the most important publications. The following day, her face appears in the Daily Express under the heading, "The Face of the Year."And so Twiggy was launched....!

She becomes London's most sought-after model: Within weeks, her fee rises from $60 to $200 an hour, and she is featured on the covers of ELLE, Vouge, Harper's Bazaar, Look, Life and Newsweek. Her skinny knees and frightened-kitten looks charmed the world.

A new display at the National Portrait Gallery will celebrate Twiggy's 60th birthday and the publication of a new photographic biography of her life. One of the best-known and most respected models of all time Twiggy has worked with many of the world's leading photographers and a selection of the most iconic of these portraits will be on show at the Gallery. The gallery will to publish a book when the show opens: Twiggy: A Life in Photographs.

OPENS: the 19th of September 2009.

Can't wait....!

More images of Twiggy at my Alice's Salon Coquette.

xx


2 comments:

Toothfairy said...

how beautiful! she's really an icon!


*loves*

Alice Saga said...

i know!!!! such an ingenue.

xx