From 1966 until 1970 Twiggy travelled the world modelling for numerous magazines including Vogue, Elle and Tatler. Her photograph was even encased in a Time Capsule and sent into space. In the United States, there was a Twiggy doll and numerous merchandising items carrying her name.
During those years as a model she posed for some of the top photographers in the world including Barry Lategan, Helmut Newton, Terence Donovan, Melvin Sokolosky, Richard Avedon and Bert Stern, who would make three documentaries about her extraordinary trip to the USA in 1967.
In the 1970s she moved into the acting world when Ken Russell cast her in the lead role in the musical film of “The Boyfriend”, for which she won two Golden Globe awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Most Promising New Comer.
In 1972 she posed with David Bowie to create the classic shot that became the cover of “Pin Ups” album. Also in the 1970s after the release of her first album Twiggy did a concert tour ending with a sell-out appearance in London at The Royal Albert Hall.
After the success of “The Boyfriend”, Twiggy decided to concentrate on acting, singing and dancing. Her films and TV include “W”, “The Doctor and the Devils”, “Club Paradise”, “The Blues Brothers”, “The Little Match Girl”, “Madame Sousatzka”, the US sitcom “Princesses”, “Young Charlie Chaplin” and playing Eliza Doolittle in “Pygmalion” for ITV in the UK. Twiggy also had her own musical TV series in the 1970s on the BBC.
Another milestone in Twiggy’s varied career was when she had her own chat show series on ITV, “Twiggy’s People”, interviewing, among others, Dustin Hoffman, Lauren Bacall, Tom Jones, Joan Rivers, Eric Idle and Tim Curry.
Her first appearance in the theatre was in the 1970s playing “Cinderella” in London’s West End. In 1983 she starred on Broadway in the hugely successful, award winning Gershwin musical “My One and Only”, for which she was nominated for a Tony award. Twiggy has also appeared twice as Elvira in Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit, the first production was at the Chichester Festival Theatre UK and the second was at Bay Street Theatre, Long Island, New York.
In the late 1990s she appeared at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York in “If Love Were All”, based on the relationship between Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. In the early 2000’s Twiggy also appeared as Mrs Warren in Sir Peter Hall’s production of Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”, in which she toured the UK.
Over the past four decades Twiggy has received multiple awards and recorded several acclaimed albums, her last one being “Romantically Yours”, which received lauded reviews in the music press worldwide.
As a fashion designer, Twiggy has launched successful clothing and accessories ranges in the US, the UK and Japan.
In the early 1990s Twiggy returned to modelling after receiving a call from the American photographer Stephen Meisel, asking her to work with him on a cover, and feature spread for Italian Vogue, entitled “Twiggy The Legend”. From 2005 to 2011 Twiggy led the hugely successful Marks and Spencer advertising campaign and was credited with turning the stores fortune around. In 2012 she was invited to design a “Twiggy” collection for M&S online.
Twiggy has also authored several books. Her last autobiography was “Twiggy in Black and White”. In 2009 the National Portrait Gallery curated a tribute collection of iconic Twiggy photographs and published, “TWIGGY, A Life in Photographs.” In 2005 Twiggy joined reality TV show ‘America’s Next Top Model’ as one of the judges, led by Tyra Banks, in Season’s Five, Six and Seven.
Being a proud Londoner she was thrilled to receive the Freedom of the City of London in 2017.
In 2020 she launched her hugely successful podcast ‘Tea with Twiggy’, an intimate weekly chat with special guests, meeting virtually over a cup of tea.
Twiggy joined fellow celebrity ambassadors Kate Moss and Jourdan Dunn as a face of Charlotte Tilbury’s beauty campaign in March 2022.
In October 2024 a feature film documentary of Twiggy’s life directed by Sadie Frost featured in the London Film Festival at the BFI. “Twiggy” is due for general release in cinemas in February 2025.
Author, playwright and comedian Ben Elton has written and directed a musical based on Twiggy’s life called “Close Up”. It premiered at the The Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre in September 2023, to a sold out run of eight weeks. The production is a musical featuring songs the 1960’s.
In March 2019 Twiggy was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire for her services to fashion, the arts and charity. She received the Damehood from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace during an investiture ceremony.
She is an ardent supporter of animal welfare and supports Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and many children’s charities and Breast Cancer Now.
Twiggy was married to actor Michael Whitney in 1977 and had a daughter Carly, born 1978. She was widowed in 1983. In 1985 she met actor Leigh Lawson and they were married in 1988.
From 1966 until 1970 Twiggy travelled the world modelling for numerous magazines including Vogue, Elle and Tatler.
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Copyright © - Twiggy.com by Kobestarr Digital