Sixties Icon Twiggy turns 60, Celebrates with ‘A Life in Photographs’ Show in London

Sixties Icon Twiggy turns 60, Celebrates with ‘A Life in Photographs’ Show in London

by Serge the Concierge

Remember the skinny girl who popped up on the London scene at age 16 in the swinging 60's.

Well sixties icon Twiggy turns 60.

In her interview with Jess Cartner-Morley Twiggy at 60: 'It's amazing I didn't go stark raving bonkers (Guardian, Sept 19) we find out that she is not resting on her laurels.

I especially like the passage where she relates how she got her gig with Marks and Spencer 5 years ago:

"One winter day five years ago, Twiggy and Lawson stopped at a pub in
Southwold, Suffolk, after a blustery walk on the beach. It so happened
that Steve Sharp, the M&S marketing whiz, was having lunch there
with his wife, recognized Twiggy and had the idea of using her in an
M&S campaign. "I'm very happy I went to that pub. It's funny, when
I think of all the times I've been to meet someone about a job, and
worried about what to wear, and got changed a million times. And then
there I am that day in Southwold in my woolly hat and anorak, and Steve
spots me. It just shows, doesn't it? Who'd have thought something like
M&S would come along for me, at the age I was?"

Her show Twiggy: A Life In Photographs opens September 19 at the National Portrait
Gallery in  London and runs until March 21, 2010.

PubTwiggy

The show is a companion to a book of the same name (cover above).

She will also be one of those discussed at 60s Cover Girls: When Pop Met Fashion (also at the National Portrait Gallery, UK) on October 15 at 7PM.

Here's the outline:

"The Sixties saw the beginnings of what we now call ‘super models’ – a
new generation defined by the longevity and diversity of their careers
and their own celebrity status, which in cases like Jean Shrimpton,
Twiggy and Penelope Tree, rivalled the photographers and designers they
worked with. Other notable models of the period include: Grace
Coddington, Jill Kennignton, Celia Hammond, Tania Mallet, Patti Boyd,
Sandra Paul, Jane Lumb and Paulene Stone. Photographers such as David
Bailey, Terence Donovan, John Cowan, John French, and Norman Parkinson
all contributed to create the look that continues to live in people’s
memories now."

I might be only 2 years away from fame.

4 comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.