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    "parsed_content": "Forever TwiggyThe face of London in the 1960s is living her best life at the age of 77.\u201cTwiggy: The Woman Behind the Icon,\u201d arrives in America this month.Credit...OK McCausland for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexSearch & Section NavigationSection NavigationAccountAccountGoHome U.S.SECTIONSU.S.PoliticsNew YorkCaliforniaEducationHealthObituariesScienceClimateWeatherSportsBusinessTechThe UpshotThe MagazineTOP STORIESDonald TrumpSupreme CourtCongressImmigrationAbortionLatest PollsNEWSLETTERSThe MorningMake sense of the day\u2019s news and ideas.The EveningCatch up on big news, and wind down to end your day.See all newslettersPODCASTSThe DailyThe biggest stories of our time, in 20 minutes a day.See all podcastsWorldSECTIONSWorldAfricaAmericasAsiaAustraliaCanadaEuropeMiddle EastScienceClimateWeatherHealthObituariesTOP STORIESMiddle East CrisisRussia-Ukraine WarChina International RelationsThe Global ProfileLeer en Espa\u00f1olNEWSLETTERSThe WorldA guide to understanding the news, made for readers around the globe.Your Places: Global UpdateThe latest news for any part of the world you select.Canada LetterBackstories and analysis from our Canadian correspondents.See all newslettersBusinessSECTIONSBusinessTechEconomyMediaFinance and MarketsDealBookPersonal TechEnergy TransitionYour MoneyTOP STORIESU.S. EconomyStock MarketArtificial IntelligenceNEWSLETTERSDealBookThe most crucial business and policy news you need to know.On TechOur best tech reporting from the week.See all newslettersPODCASTSHard ForkOur tech journalists help you make sense of the rapidly changing tech world.See all podcastsArtsSECTIONSToday's ArtsBook ReviewBest SellersDanceMoviesMusicTelevisionTheaterPop CultureT MagazineVisual ArtsRECOMMENDATIONS100 Best Movies of the 21st CenturyCritic\u2019s PicksWhat to ReadWhat to WatchWhat to Listen To5 Minutes to Make You Love MusicNEWSLETTERSBooksReviews, news and features to help you find your next read.WatchingStreaming TV and movie recommendations.See all newslettersPODCASTSBook ReviewThe podcast that takes you inside the literary world.PopcastPop music news, new songs and albums, and artists of note.See all podcastsLifestyleSECTIONSAll LifestyleWellTravelStyleReal EstateFoodLoveYour MoneyPersonal TechT MagazineCOLUMNS36 HoursAsk WellThe HuntModern LoveWhere to EatVowsSocial Q\u2019sThe EthicistAsk the TherapistNEWSLETTERSThe WeekenderUnwind with stories about culture and the way we live.WellEssential news and guidance to live your healthiest life.See all newslettersPODCASTSModern LoveThe complicated love lives of real people.See all podcastsOpinionSECTIONSOpinionGuest EssaysEditorialsOp-DocsVideosLettersTOPICSPoliticsWorldBusinessTechClimateHealthCultureCOLUMNISTSJamelle BouieMaureen DowdDavid FrenchThomas L. 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Win ProjectionsNEWSLETTERSThe PulseDelivering the top stories in sports, Sunday to Friday.See all newslettersPLAYConnections: Sports Edition Connections: Soccer Edition Connections Coach U.S.InternationalCanadaEspa\u00f1ol\u4e2d\u6587Forever TwiggyThe face of London in the 1960s is living her best life at the age of 77.\u201cTwiggy: The Woman Behind the Icon,\u201d arrives in America this month.Credit...OK McCausland for The New York TimesSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 6:45 min Share full articleBy Rhonda GarelickPublished Sept. 16, 2026Updated Sept. 17, 2026When 16-year-old Lesley Hornby, the British model known for her skinny frame, freckles, blond pixie cut and blue eyes fringed with heavy false lashes, was discovered in 1966 by a fashion editor, her look hit like a lightning bolt.Twiggy, as she was instantly renamed, was nothing like the models popular at that time \u2014 sultry, mature, upper class-coded women like Jean Shrimpton. She was from a working-class family \u2014 her father was a carpenter. At 5-foot-6 she was petite and almost childlike.\u201cI didn\u2019t look like the models of that day,\u201d Twiggy, now nearly 77, said over coffee last week at Bottino restaurant in Manhattan. \u201cGirls from working-class families didn\u2019t become models.\u201dImageDiscovered in 1966 at just 16, when a fashion editor stumbled upon some photos of her, Twiggy\u2019s look hit like a lightning bolt.Credit...PA Images\/Getty ImagesBut a new era was dawning in the 1960s; music and fashion were all about youth, openness and social mobility. Twiggy seemed to embody London\u2019s youthquake, and its mod scene, telegraphing fresh energy and new possibilities.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTwiggy\u2019s famous face launched a thousand commodities, a marketing tool for cosmetics, clothes and lunch boxes. But her real-life story, which unfolds in the director Sadie Frost\u2019s thoughtful 2025 documentary, \u201cTwiggy: The Woman Behind the Icon,\u201d which arrives in America this month, continued long after the youthquake subsided.ImageRather than flatten herself to fit her cartoonlike status, Twiggy used fame to explore myriad art forms over a 60-year career \u2014 film, theater, fashion design, dance and singing \u2014 proving gifted at all of them.Credit...Daily Herald\/Mirrorpix, via Getty ImagesAn Unusual Celebrity StoryIt\u2019s easy to see traces of the young Twiggy in her still youthful face. Her hair remains blond; bangs still frame her blue eyes. And she still goes by the moniker Twiggy.Aging doesn\u2019t bother her. \u201cI don\u2019t spend a lot of time thinking about what I look like,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you start getting into that, about, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019ve got this wrinkle and that wrinkle\u2026\u2019\u201d She trailed off, but her point was clear: She is comfortable in her skin.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRather than flatten herself to fit her cartoonlike status, Twiggy used fame to explore myriad art forms over a 60-year career, including film, theater, fashion design, dance and singing, proving gifted at all of them.After four years as a model, working with photographers including Barry Lategan (whose early photos first got Twiggy noticed), Cecil Beaton, Bert Stern, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton, she moved on to cinema. The director Ken Russell was so impressed with her that, although she had no acting, singing or dancing experience, he cast her as the lead in his 1971 film musical, \u201cThe Boy Friend,\u201d opposite co-stars Christopher Gable, who\u2019d danced with the Royal Ballet, and Tommy Tune, already a Broadway star. Russell sent her to singing and dance classes, which she plunged into with enthusiasm.ImageChristopher Gable and Twiggy dance in the film \u201cThe Boy Friend\u201d in 1971.Credit...MGM\/Everett CollectionShe learned to tap in a year. \u201cIt was harder for Chris Gable to learn tap than for me, because ballet dancers do everything turned out,\u201d she said, remembering with a laugh that she\u2019d had an advantage in this over her professional ballet star colleague.That film role earned Twiggy two Golden Globes. She went on to star on the London stage and appeared in dozens of films and television shows. She recorded albums and designed fashion lines. In 1983, she co-starred with her old friend Tommy Tune in a Broadway revival of the Gershwin musical, \u201cMy One and Only,\u201d which earned her a Tony nomination.\u201cHe\u2019s another one who changed my life,\u201d she said of Tune. \u201cHe always takes my breath away. He\u2019s elegance personified.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTFrost\u2019s documentary shows Twiggy coping with crowds lunging toward her, talk show hosts leeringly asking about her body, and even an interview, while still a teen, with Woody Allen, who badgers her with condescending questions, including \u201cWho\u2019s your favorite philosopher?\u201d Twiggy met every situation with polite but firm answers. \u201cWho\u2019s your favorite philosopher?\u201d she asks Allen, stunning him into silence.Poised and ProtectedWhat explains such poise? Twiggy\u2019s eyes filled as she gestured heavenward and replied, \u201cOne hundred percent Norman,\u201d referring to the father she adored. \u201cDad became my rock when Mum would go into hospital,\u201d she explained. Nell Hornby struggled with mental illness throughout Twiggy\u2019s childhood, disappearing periodically into psychiatric wards, leaving Norman to care for their three daughters. (Twiggy was the youngest.) \u201cHe kept me kind of away from it,\u201d she said. \u201cProtected.\u201dPerhaps even more important was the steadfast love Norman showed his ill wife. Twiggy recalls that, when asked why he \u201cput up with Nell,\u201d Norman would simply say, \u201cBecause I love her.\u201dIn addition to her father, she found a protector during her early modeling years in her then-boyfriend and manager, Justin de Villeneuve, who despite his evident peccadilloes, kept her safe. \u201cHe looked after me,\u201d she said. \u201cI was a kid, but nobody touched me.\u201dImageFrost\u2019s documentary highlights Twiggy\u2019s remarkable lifelong equanimity, her way of handling challenges that would have felled most young girls. Credit...OK McCausland for The New York TimesTwiggy weathered other storms over the years, especially the sudden death of her first husband, the actor Michael Witney, when their daughter Carly was just turning five. Happily remarried for nearly four decades to the actor, writer and director Leigh Lawson, she\u2019s a doting grandmother to Carly\u2019s two children and surrounded by adoring friends, many of whom figure in Frost\u2019s film, including Dustin Hoffman, Fran Drescher (whose show, \u201cThe Nanny\u201d was inspired by her friendship with Twiggy), the actress Joanna Lumley, Paul McCartney and Stella McCartney (who designed the cream tuxedo Twiggy wore in 2019 to receive her damehood at Buckingham Palace).AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe day we met she wore a cream blouse, maroon and cream patterned pants by Zara, white trainers and a maroon leather jacket from her erstwhile midpriced Twiggy line at Marks & Spencer. \u201cI\u2019m not a big high-end fashion buyer,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cI can\u2019t wear high heels. I hate them.\u201dHer obvious ease with herself accounts for her ongoing appeal, to women in her own age bracket and even to very young people. The majority of Twiggy\u2019s fan mail, which she answers herself, comes, she said, from 14- to 25-year-olds. This is likely due in part to the perennial interest in \u201960s fashion, but it speaks also to the timeless quality of that \u201cTwiggy\u201d icon, or as she describes her image, \u201cthis little person who kind of sits on my shoulder and never goes away.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-16T16:00:09+00:00",
    "author_name": "Rhonda Garelick",
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    "ai_headline": "Forever Twiggy",
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    "ai_excerpt": "Lesley Hornby, known as Twiggy, the iconic 1960s model, is the subject of a new documentary, \"Twiggy: The Woman Behind the Icon,\" arriving in America this month. At 77, Twiggy reflects on her groundbreaking career in modeling, film, theater, and fashion, highlighting her enduring poise and impact.",
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