--- title: Dame Lesley Lawson description: Discover Twiggy's remarkable journey from 1960s supermodel and “Face of ’66” to Golden Globe-winning actress, singer and Broadway star. canonical_url: https://marktheday.info/dame-lesley-lawson language: en-GB date: 2026-09-18T17:26:38Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://marktheday.info/dame-lesley-lawson. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 3281 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://marktheday.info/dame-lesley-lawson. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. Lesley Hornby was born on September 19, 1949, in Neasden, northwest London, the youngest of three daughters born to Nellie Lydia and William Norman Hornby. Her father was a master carpenter and joiner, while her mother worked in a printing factory. There was little about her upbringing to suggest that within a few years her photograph would be appearing in magazines around the world and her appearance would help define an entire era of British fashion. She attended Brondesbury and Kilburn High School, where she was already noticeably slim. That build helped produce the nickname that would eventually replace her real name in the public imagination. “Twiggy” developed from “Twigs,” a nickname inspired by her thin frame. It was hardly the sort of carefully manufactured stage name dreamed up during a lengthy meeting between agents and publicists. Nevertheless, it proved perfect. Short, memorable and immediately recognizable, Twiggy became not merely a nickname but eventually an international brand. Her transformation began in the mid-1960s when she met Nigel Davies, a hairdresser who later became known as Justin de Villeneuve and subsequently acted as her manager. Another important figure was celebrity hairdresser Leonard of Mayfair, where Twiggy received the short hairstyle that became part of her signature appearance. Photographer Barry Lategan photographed the new haircut, and the images helped attract the attention of fashion journalist Deirdre McSharry of the Daily Express. In 1966, the newspaper named Twiggy “The Face of ’66.” Things moved very quickly after that. Twiggy was still a teenager when she became one of the most recognizable models in Britain. Her short hair, large eyes, dramatically painted eyelashes and slender, almost androgynous figure represented a dramatic departure from the more mature, curvaceous ideal that had dominated much of 1950s fashion. The timing could hardly have been better. London was undergoing an enormous cultural transformation. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other British musicians were conquering international pop music. Carnaby Street and King's Road were becoming fashion destinations. Mary Quant and other designers were creating youthful clothes that rejected the formality of the previous generation. Miniskirts, bold patterns, tights, boots and geometric shapes became part of a distinctly modern London look. Twiggy fitted directly into that revolution. Or, more accurately, quite a lot of it was fitted onto Twiggy. Her slender frame became an ideal showcase for the straight lines and short hemlines of the new fashions. The Victoria and Albert Museum has noted her role in popularizing the miniskirt and the youthful styles associated with designers such as Mary Quant. Photographs of Twiggy became visual shorthand for Swinging London. Within months, her fame had spread beyond Britain. She traveled to the United States in 1967 and received the sort of media attention usually reserved for film stars and royalty. American newspapers and magazines chronicled her arrival, while major photographers clamored to photograph her. She appeared in Vogue and other leading fashion publications and was photographed by some of the most important photographers of the era. There was something unusual about her appeal. Twiggy was certainly fashionable, but she did not project the remote sophistication traditionally associated with high-fashion models. She looked young because she was young, and her personality could be cheerful, approachable and distinctly British. She also became one of the earliest models whose name itself possessed commercial power. Twiggy-branded clothing and merchandise appeared, and her distinctive image became recognizable even to people who paid little attention to fashion. Long before the modern concept of an influencer, Twiggy demonstrated how a model could become a celebrity independent of the clothes she was modeling. And then she quit. In 1970, after only a few extraordinary years at the top of international fashion, Twiggy announced her retirement from modeling. She has famously expressed the rather practical observation that she could not remain a clothes hanger for the rest of her life. It would have been perfectly reasonable for the story to end there: teenager becomes one of the world's most famous models, helps define the visual identity of the 1960s and retires. Twiggy had other ideas. Film director Ken Russell cast her in his 1971 musical The Boy Friend, based on Sandy Wilson's stage musical. Twiggy played Polly Browne, an assistant stage manager who is suddenly required to take over the leading role in a theatrical production. It was a considerable gamble. A famous model attempting to become an actress can attract a certain amount of skepticism, particularly when the role also requires singing and dancing. Twiggy answered the skeptics by winning two Golden Globe Awards. She received the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year – Actress and the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Suddenly, the former model had substantial evidence that there was more to her abilities than posing in front of a camera. Her acting career continued with roles in films including W, There Goes the Bride, Club Paradise and Madame Sousatzka. She also appeared in television productions on both sides of the Atlantic. Music became another important part of her career. Twiggy had begun recording during her modeling years, but she subsequently pursued singing much more seriously. Her musical interests included pop, standards and country music, and she released several albums. Her voice proved particularly well suited to material that emphasized warmth and character rather than vocal gymnastics. She worked with musicians including producer Tony Visconti and recorded material demonstrating that the singing heard in The Boy Friend had not been a cinematic accident. Then came Broadway. In 1983, Twiggy starred opposite Tommy Tune in the Gershwin musical My One and Only. The production incorporated songs by George and Ira Gershwin and became a major Broadway success. Twiggy played English Channel swimmer Edythe Herbert, while Tune played an American aviator determined to win her heart. The role required acting, singing and considerable dancing, and Twiggy received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. For anyone still determined to think of her merely as a former fashion model, Broadway was becoming rather inconvenient. Her career continued to move freely between entertainment fields. She acted in films and television, performed on stage, recorded music and became a familiar television personality. British audiences later knew her as a judge on Britain's Next Top Model. There was a pleasing symmetry to the assignment: young models hoping to establish careers were being judged by someone who had become one of the most famous models in history before the term “supermodel” had even entered common use. She also appeared as a judge on the American series America's Next Top Model, bringing decades of experience to an industry that had changed enormously since she first faced a camera. Fashion, unsurprisingly, never disappeared completely from her life. Twiggy developed clothing collections and worked extensively with Marks & Spencer, appearing in advertising campaigns and collaborating on fashion projects. Her later work demonstrated something the teenage Twiggy could hardly have been expected to represent: style does not stop at a particular stage of life. Her influence on fashion has also undergone considerable historical reassessment. The Twiggy look was frequently copied during the 1960s, particularly the exaggerated eye makeup. Her lower eyelashes were famously painted onto the skin, producing the wide-eyed appearance that became one of the decade's most recognizable beauty styles. Yet her importance went beyond makeup. Twiggy represented a broader generational shift. Fashion was no longer necessarily being dictated downward from elite Parisian couture houses to wealthy adult customers. Young people increasingly had their own money, their own music, their own shops and their own ideas about what they wanted to wear. The streets of London became as influential as traditional fashion salons. Twiggy was one of the faces of that change. Her career has inevitably inspired debate about body image. Her extremely slender physique became widely imitated and helped change the physical ideal promoted by parts of the fashion industry. Twiggy herself has repeatedly maintained that her thinness was natural rather than the result of dieting and has objected to being blamed for later trends toward dangerously underweight models. That distinction matters. Twiggy became famous partly because her appearance was unusual. Once the industry began trying to reproduce that appearance as a standard, something individual risked becoming an expectation. Her personal life also brought both happiness and tragedy. In 1977, she married American actor Michael Witney, whom she had met while working on the film W. Their daughter, Carly, was born the following year. Witney died suddenly in 1983. Several years later, Twiggy married actor and director Leigh Lawson. He subsequently adopted Carly, and Twiggy took Lawson as her married surname. Thus Lesley Hornby, who had become Twiggy to the world, became Lesley Lawson in private and professional life. Recognition of her cultural contribution continued long after Swinging London had become history. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, becoming Dame Lesley Lawson, for services to fashion, the arts and charity. It was quite a journey for the schoolgirl from Neasden. Twiggy's longevity is especially striking because her original phenomenon belonged so specifically to one moment in time. Few images are more firmly associated with the 1960s than Twiggy's short hair, huge eyes and miniskirts. That could easily have become a trap. Instead, she kept moving. She left modeling when she wanted something different. She became a film actress and won two Golden Globes. She recorded albums. She reached Broadway and earned a Tony nomination. She worked in television. She returned to fashion from a completely different perspective and eventually received one of Britain's highest honors. She also became something far more interesting than a preserved symbol of the Swinging Sixties. She became a survivor of them. Fashion changes with ruthless speed. Yesterday's revolutionary hemline eventually becomes tomorrow's photograph in a museum exhibition. Models arrive, dominate magazine covers and disappear. Trends that once seemed impossibly modern become fancy-dress costumes. Twiggy endured because the model was only the beginning. The nickname remains instantly recognizable, the photographs remain unmistakable and those painted lower eyelashes remain capable of transporting almost anyone straight back to 1966. But Dame Lesley Lawson built the rest of the story herself. ```json { "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#paul_stallibrass_144f731fa4" }, "dateModified": "2026-09-18T17:26:38Z", "datePublished": "2026-09-18T03:48:57Z", "description": "Discover Twiggy's remarkable journey from 1960s supermodel and “Face of ’66” to Golden Globe-winning actress, singer and Broadway star.", "headline": "Dame Lesley Lawson", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/images\/birthdays\/september\/dame-lesley-lawson-page-2-1.webp", "caption": null, "description": "Happy Birthday Dame Lesley Lawson", "width": 600, "height": 617 } ], "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/dame-lesley-lawson" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/dame-lesley-lawson" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul Stallibrass", "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#paul_stallibrass_144f731fa4" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/", "logo": { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/marktheday.info\/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "", "width": 0, "height": 0 } ] } ```