Twiggy, the London model who came to define the look of the 1960s, turns 77 on September 19. Born Lesley Hornby in Neasden, London, she was still a teenager when a photograph of her newly cropped, bleached haircut caught the eye of a fashion journalist, who published it under the headline "The Face of '66" in the Daily Express. Within months, Lesley Hornby had become simply Twiggy, and fashion had a new template for what a model could look like.
Twiggy's signature style was defined by contrast: an androgynous, cropped pixie cut set against enormous, heavily lined eyes finished with false lower lashes painted on by hand, a look that became one of the most imitated beauty formulas of the decade. Paired with the era's rising hemlines, boxy shift dresses and Mary Quant-associated mod silhouettes, the combination made her, alongside contemporaries like Jean Shrimpton, one of the faces most associated with London's Swinging Sixties and with what is now widely regarded as the birth of the modern supermodel. By 1967, she had appeared on the covers of Vogue and Tatler and modeled in France, Japan and the United States.
Happy Birthday to Twiggy. Born Lesley Hornby this day in 1949 in Neasden, Middlesex. English model, actress and singer. Known for her thin build and androgynous appearance, she became a British cultural icon of the "swinging 60's" #Twiggy #History 🎂🎉 pic.twitter.com/nKtIq6lWUq
— Kenny (@kennylanglea) September 19, 2026
Twiggy stepped back from modeling in 1970, reportedly telling reporters at the time that she didn't want to be "a clothes hanger" for the rest of her career, and pivoted into acting and singing. Her performance in the 1971 musical film "The Boy Friend" earned her two Golden Globe Awards, and in 1983 she made her Broadway debut in "My One and Only," which brought a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical. Her fashion history continued to surface in unexpected places, including a memorable appearance at the 2009 Met Gala, themed "The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion," where she wore a black-and-white look with a butterfly-appliqué fascinator alongside British model Agyness Deyn.
In 1967, Woody Allen tried to embarrass model Twiggy - and it backfired pic.twitter.com/3EQHckW6sI
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) August 3, 2025
Twiggy's connection to Marks & Spencer, which dates back to 1967 when she modeled mini dresses for the retailer's international export line, resurfaced decades later when she became the face of its advertising campaigns starting in 2005 and later collaborated on an exclusive clothing collection for the brand in 2012, a partnership widely credited with helping refresh the retailer's fashion image at the time. In the 2018 New Year Honours, she was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to fashion, the arts and charity, and was invested by then-Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace wearing a white Stella McCartney suit.
Her most recent moment in the spotlight came via director Sadie Frost's 2025 documentary "Twiggy," which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and features interviews with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman, Joanna Lumley and Charlotte Tilbury, tracing her rise from a London teenager to what the film's marketing has called one of fashion's first true "it girls."
Nearly sixty years after "The Face of '66" ran in the Daily Express, Twiggy's specific visual vocabulary, the cropped cut, the graphic under-eye lash, the mod mini shapes, remains a reliable reference point in fashion and beauty editorial whenever the 1960s resurface as a mood board. Her birthday offers a natural moment to revisit exactly what made that look so durable, and why a four-year modeling career is still shorthand for an entire era of British fashion.
