Dame Lesley Lawson, widely known by the mononym nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress, and singer. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London.
Twiggy in 2023
Twiggy in 1967, at the height of her early modelling career, showing the look that made her famous
Twiggy on set of The Boy Friend in 1971
Twiggy with Justin de Villeneuve in Los Angeles (1973)
The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, music and fashion, and was symbolised by the city's "pop and fashion exports", such as the Beatles, as the multimedia leaders of the British Invasion of musical acts; the mod and psychedelic subcultures; Mary Quant's miniskirt designs; popular fashion models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton; the iconic status of popular shopping areas such as London's King's Road, Kensington and Carnaby Street; the political activism of the anti-nuclear movement; and the sexual liberation movement.
A scene from Carnaby Street, in London's West End, c. 1966
Carnaby Street, c. 1968
The Mini became an icon of 1960s popular culture, and featured in the 1969 British caper film The Italian Job.