Twiggy: 'There was always a dark side to the 1960s'

Lesley Hornby (as she was then known) was scouted in 1966 at 16 years old - Popperfoto via Getty Images

“I happened to be that person at the right place at the right time,” is how Twiggy describes becoming the world’s first supermodel; a muse to Cecil Beaton, David Bailey, Diana Vreeland and Mary Quant who set global trends, redefined beauty standards and prompted “Twiggymania” as nonchalantly as the shaggy blonde crop that catapulted her to stardom.

In 1966, Lesley Hornby, as she was known then, was 16 and had her hair cut into a boyish crop by the London stylist Leonard Lewis. When the cut was done, photographer Barry Lategan took her picture, and Lewis hung it on the wall at his salon. The Daily Express fashion editor Deirdre McSharry saw the photo, and promptly booked Twiggy for a photo shoot proclaiming her “the face of ‘66”. The rest is fashion history.

That she’s also won multiple awards for her stage and screen performances (including two Golden Globes for her 1971 performance in The Boyfriend), released 10 albums, enjoyed a successful 20-year collaboration with M&S and done a stint presenting America’s Top Model is a career trajectory she says is “as big a shock to me as to everyone else”.

Twiggy, 76, at the Burberry summer show during London Fashion Week last year - Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Burberry

At 76, she’s earned the right to pick and choose her work, and does so judiciously. But when Burberry came calling, the opportunity was too good to ignore. “A phone call was made to my agent, asking if I’d do the campaign. I said ‘Yes, please!’ I was thrilled,” she says. Which is why she’s currently featured in magazines and billboards in a series of leather trench coats, looking as cool as relatable as she did some 60 years ago.

While it’s her first time modelling for Burberry, she was a guest at the spring/summer 2026 show last September, where she rubbed shoulders with Sir Elton John, Raye and “hysterically funny” Jennifer Saunders. It’s not the first time the two have aligned.

“In 2009, I got a call from Anna Wintour, because the theme of the Met Ball that year was going to be British [‘The Model as Muse’], and she wanted to get my permission to use a beautiful image [of me] on a poster. Then Christopher Bailey, who was [creative director] at Burberry at the time, asked if he could dress me. He asked what I’d like to wear, and I said ‘I’d like a tuxedo’. So he made me a beautiful black tuxedo.”

Twiggy is the face of Burberry’s latest campaign - Courtesy of Burberry

Synonymous as she was with mini-skirts throughout the Sixties, trouser suits have always been her uniform of choice (she wears one in the Burberry campaign, and also wore one to collect her 2019 damehood). “My style hasn’t changed. I’ve always been a trouser suit girl. In the Sixties, I went to a tailor called Tommy Nutter, who’s sadly no longer with us.

“I wanted boys’ trouser suits, and you couldn’t really buy them. I’ve still got a couple of Tommy’s suits. They don’t fit me any more, but he made me a red velvet trouser suit with satin lapels and a matching waistcoat, as well as versions in cream and violet. They were beautiful. I’ve always loved that androgynous look. I’ve never been a frilly dress girl. That’s why I love this collection from Burberry, because it’s not frilly at all. It’s great tailoring, which I love.”

Triple threat: (from left to right) Jennifer Saunders, Twiggy and Joanna Lumley at London Fashion Week last year - Dave Benett/Getty Images for Burberry

Could she ever be enticed into a mini again? “I used to wear them very, very short, but I was 17,” she laughs. “Mini-mini-skirts are for the young. But I’ve got skirts that are just above the knee, that I still wear with tights and biker boots.”

A style icon to many, whose style does she admire? “When I was a wee girl, I thought the most wonderful, beautifully dressed woman was Greta Garbo. I would have loved to look and dress like that. From the modern day, Sienna Miller. She always looks incredible. She sets her own style, and she’s lovely with it.”

She says she feels far more confident now than during the “Twiggymania” years. “You grow into yourself, don’t you? With all the things I’ve done over the years, it’s given me confidence. When that all happened to me in 1966, I was as surprised as everyone else. I was this skinny kid. I thought I looked quite peculiar, really. But like most teenagers, I was obsessed with fashion. I made my own clothes then, which I can still do. That’s my hobby, sewing. I love it. Although more recently, it’s diverted from making things for me to making things for my grandchildren,” she smiles. “I’m a very good grandma.”

Twiggy opted for a chic trouser suit for her investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2019 - Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images

She dotes on her granddaughter Joni, 10, and grandson, 5, whose mother is her daughter Carly, 48, an illustrator. “Joni is only now starting to pick the things she wants to wear, rather than have her mum dress her. It’s a great age, actually. And making kids’ clothes is really fun.”

These days, Twiggy splits her time between London and Suffolk, where she lives with her second husband, the actor and director Leigh Lawson. “I do tend to live in the present,” she admits. “I’ve got so many things going on and – touch wood – luckily, I’m happy. I’ve got a lovely husband, a lovely daughter and grandkids. They keep me busy. I’m also in the middle of recording an album – an exciting project, because I haven’t done it for a while.”

She’s also hoping to rekindle a stage musical based on her life, written by Ben Elton and performed briefly in London three years ago. “It was very emotional to watch, because it was my life on stage. Hopefully, it’ll go on tour here or in America.”

Another snapshot of her life that’s emotional to watch is her famous TV interview with Woody Allen, that took place when she was 17 and he was 31. “What are your views on serious matters?” asked the man who would go on to be named multiple times in the Epstein Files. “Who’s your favourite philosopher?”

“I haven’t got one,” she laughs. “Who’s yours?”

Allen mumbles: “Oh, I like them all.” Twiggy pursues the point: “Who? I don’t know their names. What are their names?”

“I put him in his place,” she laughs now, explaining that it was her friend Bert Stern, the photographer, who suggested she be interviewed by Allen. “I’d done so many interviews by then, and was used to people asking ‘How did you get your name?’, ‘What do you eat?’ – the usual questions. So I sat there waiting for him to ask me something like ‘What do you think of America?’ Normal questions. When his opening line was ‘Who’s your favourite philosopher?’ I can remember the feeling so well. I was so embarrassed, because we were in front of a live audience. And I didn’t know any philosophers. You can see how it carries on. When I said ‘Who’s yours?’ I was actually pleading with him to help me. Which he declined to do.”

The television interview with Woody Allen in 1967, when Twiggy was just 17

Sixty years later, the footage has been widely shared on social media as one more example of the misogyny faced by women in the public eye. “Oh, I love Twiggy,” my 15-year-old daughter says when I tell her I’ll be interviewing her. When I ask how she’s heard of her, she refers to the clip. “I saw it on TikTok. She slayed. And I love her style, too.”

Twiggy hopes today’s models would be treated more kindly. “Because of all the scandals that emerged a few years back, I think models are much better looked after and cared for. Although I’m not a day-to-day model, so I don’t really know the ins and outs of how the modelling world works now. But with the internet, it’s completely changed. With this Burberry campaign, instead of going out in one magazine, the day after it launched, I was getting messages from Japan, America and Australia from people who’d seen it. That’s very good for the [fashion] industry, because you can hit many markets that you wouldn’t have hit before.”

She’s tickled by her all-ages international fanbase. “I went through my fan-mail and got [a letter] last week from China, from a little girl who loves the 1960s. It makes me laugh, but I understand the appeal. I think that people who haven’t lived through it look back on it as a magical time. It wasn’t all [magical] – there was the Vietnam War, and people dying of drug overdoses, so there was always a dark side. But on the surface, it looked like a very jolly, happy, free time to be young. There was lots of hope, which I don’t think a lot of young people have today, which is quite sad. I don’t know what we do about it.”

But she does know what to do about ageing gracefully. “I never go to bed with make-up on. That’s always been a rule. I’ve got very dry skin, so moisturising is imperative. I don’t really do anything major. I have a healthy diet. I love to cook, and try to buy organic when I can, because I do feel very strongly that you are what you eat. When I grew up, there was very little fast food. We always had fresh vegetables – a simple diet, but pretty good. Fruit, vegetables, meat occasionally – not all this food with god knows what’s in it. And I do Pilates. Especially as you get older, you’ve got to keep everything moving. I wish I’d started much younger. I always went to the gym and I always danced, but Pilates is amazing.”

The most important thing, she says, is to stay active. “Find an interest, even if it’s a hobby. To just retire and do nothing is bad for your body and bad for your brain.” And if you can bag a glossy Burberry campaign on the side, so much the better.

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