The Cockney Kid with a face to launch a thousand shapes... And she's only 16!
- The Daily Express, February 23rd 1966

Back in 1966, Lesley Hornby was about to change her name and experience her first taste of fame which all began on a January afternoon and a trip to Leonard's hair salon in Mayfair....

"I was in the salon for about seven hours and they were cutting and colouring it, it was all extremely exciting for me. He was brilliant, I went from this mouse like brown to the colour which I have kept now."

Following the hair cut, Twiggy tells of the photo shoot that was to follow.

"Well after the hair cut I got on the bus to Barry's (Lategan) and met this really sweet lovely man who was to take my photos, I mean I'd never been in front of a camera before!"

Barry Lategan, describes the first photo shoot which were to produce the shots for the Face Of '66

"She appeared with this short hair cut which was an extraordinary transformation in her because her face came out more prominently and she's got a beautifully modelled face, totally well proportioned and there was something very new to me because she had painted her own eyelashes below her eyes and this was something no one had been doing or had done, she sat in front of the camera and it was dazzling..."

Barry Lategan, talks of the photos produced from the session  

"There are so many adjectives but it is hard to describe what 'photogenic' actually is, but my photos of Twiggy show the result of that."

"I spent the afternoon photographing her, we photographed her side on, Leonard changed her hair into a curl, he put a plait down the side of her, we smoothed her hair away we just tried different ways to show this hair cut. A few days later I made prints and as usual Leonard displayed them in his salon." 

Twiggy speaks about what happened after her photos were displayed in Leonard's salon...

"Leonard hung them up in his salon and Deidre McSharry of the Daily Express saw them and said "Who is this girl?" Anyway she phoned us up and we went along to her office and she wrote this big article on me which appeared in the Daily Express declaring me the new 'Face Of '66' and it all happened from there really!"

And so the Twiggy phenomenon begun.

The Twiggy Fashion Story Continues...

www.twiggylawson.co.uk