• 2 days ago
Director: Emily McDonald
Director Of Photography: Henry Gill
Editor: Lika Kumoi
Producer: Rashida Josiah
Creative Production Coordinator: Anisa Kennar
Production Coordinator: Ericka Gourgues-Lutran
Camera Operator: Laura Aguilera
Assistant Camera: Gordon Wong
Gaffer: Maria Kalecinska
Spark: Dylan Schultz-Soo
Audio: Jermaine Monero
Runner: Luke Demetri
Production Coordinators: Ava Kashar, Tania Jones, Ericka Gourgues-Lutran
Production Manager: David Alvarez Paz
Senior Production Manager: Alexandra Dawson Herren
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Senior Director, Production Management: Jessica Schier
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Director, Post Production: Nicholas Ascanio
Associate Talent Manager: Phoebe Dishner
Director, Content Production: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Digital Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming : Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Filmed on Location: The Langham
Florist: Blooming Haus

Category

✨
People
Transcript
00:00Hi, Vogue. I'm Twiggy, and this is my life in looks.
00:08Ah.
00:10I do remember this. This was taken by the wonderful Bert Stern,
00:15who, in the 50s and 60s, I think he was one of the biggest fashion photographers.
00:21And actually, my first trip to New York, he came on board to do a documentary of my trip.
00:28And I think there's a series of me pulling faces like this,
00:31kind of scrunching my nose up and going like that, and this one with my mouth open.
00:36It's kind of been around a long time.
00:39But he was such a brilliant man, a lovely photographer.
00:42That first year of modelling, after I was discovered in February 66, was like a whirlwind.
00:47I was a schoolgirl, and I was a mod.
00:50I used to do make-up at weekends, and I devised that make-up, and I became a model,
00:55which was three pairs of eyelashes on top, the drawn ones underneath,
00:59which I got the idea from a rag doll that I had in my bedroom.
01:02Somebody had a friend of a friend who worked on a magazine and said,
01:06I think you should go and meet this woman because I think you could maybe model.
01:10So I met this woman. I was quite upset, really, because she said,
01:13you'll never really make a model because you're too small and you're much too slim.
01:16And so I think I cried on the way home on the bus.
01:19But she said, I'm going to do some test shots of your face because you've got a very interesting face.
01:23But your hair's a mess because I used to do it myself.
01:26And she sent me to this hairdresser's called Leonard, which was a very posh salon in Mayfair in London.
01:32I was going to just have my hair styled for the photographs, and Leonard happened to be in that day,
01:37and he saw me across the salon and came over and said, can I cut your hair?
01:41And I went back the next day, and he did the now very well-known haircut that kind of launched me, really.
01:48He hung the photograph that Barry Lattican took of this haircut in his salon.
01:53And a big journalist of the day, Deirdre McSharry, who worked for the Daily Express,
01:58said, I love the haircut. Who's the girl? I've never seen her before.
02:01And she said, I want to meet her.
02:03So I got a call at my home saying, would I go up for an interview?
02:07And she said, I'm going to write an article about you.
02:10And I already had the nickname Twiggy because my legs were so skinny.
02:14About three weeks later, it was a big page in the Daily Express saying, Twiggy, the face of 66.
02:21And on that day in February, my life changed forever.
02:26Oh, it's another Bert.
02:28This is April 15th, so that would be 1967.
02:32I think this is my first ever American Vogue cover.
02:35So it's my first Vogue cover because I worked for American Vogue before I worked for British Vogue.
02:40And that was because Diana Vreeland, who was the fashion editor of American Vogue in those days,
02:46and she was like the queen of fashion.
02:48I mean, whatever Diana Vreeland said was it.
02:52And she brought me over from the UK to America and really changed my life.
02:57I always say that Diana Vreeland turned me global.
03:01Oh, this is funny.
03:04This, I was approached to do a line of clothing by manufacturers.
03:08And I think this is the little fashion show that I did in the showroom,
03:13because all the press photographers are there, of my first collection of Twiggy dresses.
03:19I loved doing that.
03:20It was like a dream come true because if what happened to me hadn't happened,
03:24what I wanted to do, I wanted to go to art school and I wanted to study fashion and design
03:30because I wanted to be a fashion designer.
03:32So I got two wishes.
03:34I got to be a model and I got to work on a collection.
03:38Oh, yeah. Oh, this is interesting.
03:40This is from a series of photographs taken by another great photographer, Melvin Sikolsky.
03:46And on my first trip to New York in 67, I was hired to do photographs of clothing range.
03:54It was a fabric company and Melvin was taking the photographs.
03:58And he wanted to do me all in different places in New York, like at the zoo.
04:03And this was with builders on a building site and coming outside of a department store
04:08and up the Empire State Building.
04:11And the first day we went out, a crowd would gather because what had happened,
04:16I had arrived in New York, it was my first trip to New York, and I'd come in after the Beatles.
04:21I was part of the British invasion.
04:23So people had seen me arriving at the airport because there was a press conference
04:28and crowds have gone.
04:30I mean, I was overwhelmed by it all.
04:32I'd gone in to do a fashion shoot and I had all this press coverage.
04:36When we went out and Melvin was taking pictures, a crowd would gather
04:40and he would try and disperse them, but they kept coming back.
04:43So he had this idea.
04:45He took me back to the studio and took photos of my face in black and white,
04:50which they made masks of, which you can see here.
04:52So wherever we were in New York, when a crowd gathers, he just gave out the masks.
04:58And the plan was to collect them back every day and use them the next day.
05:01But people wouldn't give them back.
05:04They were keeping them as a souvenir.
05:06And actually, it won them, I think, Best Advertising Campaign of the Year, I think.
05:10It was an amazing time.
05:13Ah.
05:15I love this photograph, actually.
05:17This was taken by Richard Avedon.
05:19It's July, it says there, so it must have been July 1967.
05:22On that first big trip to New York, they had the idea to paint this flower on my face.
05:28It's beautiful, actually.
05:29And slick my hair back.
05:31Over the years, a lot of people, they've done copies of this photograph.
05:37They've, with famous actresses, recreated it.
05:41But it's a beautiful photograph.
05:44Ah.
05:45I remember this very well.
05:47This is from my first movie called The Boyfriend,
05:50in which I played the lead girl called Polly Brown.
05:53And it was directed by Ken Russell.
05:55There's a scene in it where it's a song called Poor Little Pierrette.
05:59So I've got a Pierrette and Pierrot outfit on with the little ballet slippers
06:03and the white clown face.
06:05His wife, Shirley Russell, did all the costumes.
06:08She was absolutely brilliant.
06:10She did all the costumes for all his films, and she was amazing.
06:13And all my clothes in The Boyfriend are so beautiful,
06:16because they're all, like, 1920s, 30s.
06:19Absolutely gorgeous.
06:20I think I was, like, 18 and a half when we started filming.
06:24I came out, I think, in 70 or 71,
06:27and I won two Golden Globe Awards for it.
06:30And it changed my life, because from then on,
06:33I decided I didn't want to model anymore.
06:37I wanted to pursue this acting, musical career, which I did.
06:42Ah.
06:43The Bowie pinups photograph.
06:45This is interesting, actually,
06:47because I got a call from British Vogue about doing a photograph with David Bowie.
06:52The pinups have been probably early 70s.
06:55You've got to remember that Bowie was enormous.
06:58He was the biggest pop star,
07:00probably, certainly in the UK and probably in the world.
07:03And I was a huge, huge fan.
07:05And a couple of years earlier, I'd been at home,
07:08and on the radio, you know, they were playing pop music,
07:11and his new single came out, and it was called Driving Saturday.
07:14And there's a line in it where he says,
07:16she sighs like Twig the Wonder Kid.
07:18And I was like, oh, my God.
07:20He just said my name in a song.
07:22I was like, oh.
07:24Because I loved him.
07:25I thought he was brilliant.
07:27And then a few months later, I got the call saying,
07:30would I be up for doing a photograph for the cover of Vogue with Bowie?
07:34And I said, absolutely.
07:36I'd love it, because I'd never met him.
07:38He was at the time in Paris recording the pinups album.
07:42So I went to Paris and met him.
07:46And he was just an amazing man.
07:49So bright, so clever, so modest.
07:52Just a really great guy, apart from being incredibly talented.
07:56And we got on really well.
07:57We did the photograph.
07:58I went back to London.
08:00And then the then editor said, we can't put a man
08:05on the cover of British Vogue.
08:07They wouldn't budge.
08:08So while we were going back and forth with them,
08:11David said, why don't I just put it on the cover of my album?
08:14Which he did.
08:15So it became the cover of Pinups.
08:17And it's had a much longer life, actually,
08:19because every time it's reissued in a different format,
08:22out comes the cover of Pinups.
08:27That's happy memories.
08:29This is taken in the big Bieber store.
08:33Now Bieber, for those who don't know, I think most people in fashion
08:37do know, Bieber was the dream place to go and shop
08:40in the mid 60s, late 60s, into the early 70s.
08:44It was the first place in London that you could buy
08:48affordable clothes for young people.
08:51And Bieber was the inspiration of a wonderful, wonderful lady,
08:55who's one of my dear, dear friends.
08:57I love her so much, Barbara Hulanicki.
08:59And Barbara brought Bieber to London.
09:03This is one of the photographs taken in the big Bieber,
09:06because it went from a tiny boutique to a mid-sized boutique.
09:10And then they took over a department store.
09:12It's one of the most beautiful department stores in the world.
09:16But I love this, because it's my memory of Barbara.
09:19Oh, gosh.
09:21In 1983, I was doing a big Broadway musical
09:25called My One and Only with Tommy Tune.
09:28This was the night of the Tony Awards, and I had this dress made.
09:32Actually, it's very high cut.
09:35I just went to a dressmaker, I did a drawing,
09:38and I said, can you make this?
09:41And I had the points here that go over the finger.
09:44So I love my hair.
09:46I think I did that by braiding it the night before.
09:48But it was a great night. I mean, it's always a great night.
09:51You know, it's the biggest night for theatre in New York.
09:56Oh, this must be another pap shot.
10:00This is the mid-'90s.
10:03Drama League Awards, which I think are in New York.
10:06But it's interesting, because my signature look has mostly been,
10:10if I go back to look at the clothes I love,
10:13I love that boyish kind of look, men's trouser suits.
10:16You couldn't get men's suits for women in those days,
10:19so I went to a tailor called Tommy Nutter in Savile Row.
10:22He was one of my friends and one of the great tailors of that era.
10:25And he used to make me, you know, boy suits
10:28with waistcoats and trousers and the jacket.
10:31And this is a kind of... I don't think this is a Tommy Nutter,
10:34but it's that kind of look. So I've always loved that look.
10:38Ah, well, this one's interesting.
10:41So this is early-'90s.
10:43So bear in mind that I kind of quit modelling
10:47when I started doing The Boyfriend.
10:49So in 1970, I decided I wasn't going to model any more.
10:52I wanted to pursue my performing career.
10:55In the early-'90s, I got a call through my agent
11:00from a wonderful photographer called Stephen Mizell.
11:04He wanted to do a 10-page spread with me for Italian Vogue.
11:09I flew to New York and we did this amazing spread.
11:13But the funny thing is that I got to the studio in New York ahead of him.
11:18I was in make-up and hair.
11:20And he came in to say hello.
11:23I got up and said, oh, it's so lovely to meet you.
11:25I'm a huge fan and thank you for asking today.
11:28And he said, we've met before.
11:30And I went, oh, my God, I'm so... I don't remember.
11:32He said, did we meet? I don't remember.
11:34He said, no, you wouldn't remember.
11:36He said that I was 12.
11:38And what had happened, when I first went to New York in 1967,
11:43he was a 12-year-old boy.
11:45He lived in New Jersey.
11:47And he'd seen on the TV that I'd arrived in New York.
11:51He and his friend decided they wanted to come and meet me.
11:54So they took the day off school.
11:56They got the ferry over from New Jersey to New York.
11:59Somewhere, Melvyn Sikorski's studio was.
12:02They rang the doorbell.
12:04And at the time, I was being filmed for the Burt Stern documentary.
12:08And somebody answered the door.
12:10And they said, we want to meet Twiggy.
12:12And the person said, no, you can't.
12:14You know, go away.
12:15And the director of the documentary said, no, no, bring them up.
12:20It would be good footage.
12:21So these two young boys came up.
12:23I came out.
12:24Now, I don't remember this.
12:25And I told Stephen that.
12:27You came out of the dressing room.
12:29And he said, I said, oh, I hope I was nice to you.
12:32And he said, no, you were lovely.
12:33And I signed pictures for them.
12:35And we chatted.
12:37And they went away really happy, apparently.
12:40And apparently, he said to his friend on the ferry back to New Jersey,
12:43he said, one day, I'm going to photograph her.
12:46Because he'd always wanted to be a photographer.
12:48So it took from 1967 to 1992, or whatever it was, for him to photograph me.
12:54But I just thought it was such a sweet story.
12:57Ah, me and Kate.
12:59This is by Solveig Sundsbo.
13:03I hope I pronounced that properly.
13:05He's a Scandinavian photographer, a wonderful photographer.
13:08And we were doing a shoot for ID magazine.
13:11And they were photographing all different models from different eras.
13:17And the day I was booked to go in, Kate Moss was in.
13:21So she was in in the morning.
13:23And we overlapped.
13:24I went in to make up.
13:26And Kate was having her photograph taken.
13:28And then Solveig came to me and said, as you're both here today,
13:32it would be lovely to get a picture of you together.
13:35What do you think?
13:36And I said, well, I'd love it.
13:37I'm game for it.
13:38And he asked Kate.
13:39And she said, oh, yeah, that'd be great.
13:41I love the way she's leaning on me.
13:42It's brilliant.
13:43I love Kate.
13:44She's so lovely.
13:45And it's interesting, because we're both kind of the same height.
13:49I mean, she's obviously much younger than me.
13:51But, you know, when I hit in the 60s,
13:54I wouldn't have been taken by a model agency,
13:57because I was too small and too thin.
13:59When what happened to me happened,
14:01it changed the criteria of what agencies would take girls on for.
14:06And Kate came along two decades later
14:09and was very similar size and shape to me when I began.
14:13And, you know, she's one of the great models
14:15and one of the nicest girls in the world.
14:17I love her.
14:19Oh, I remember this day.
14:21I won't forget this day as long as I live, I don't think.
14:24I'm in a beautiful Stella McCartney suit that she made me.
14:28And a hat that, funny enough, the little hat,
14:31because this is at the palace when I got my damehood.
14:34The hat, I went shopping with my daughter and my granddaughter.
14:38And my granddaughter picked this hat.
14:40I think she was about, oh, she was quite little, about four or five.
14:44You're meant to wear a hat at the palace.
14:46I'll never forget the day.
14:47They don't let you know that you're going to be offered one.
14:50And I remember the day the letter came a few months before the ceremony.
14:55And it's a very official letter.
14:57And I think my first thought was, oh, my God, is it a tax letter?
15:02You know, not that it should be, because I pay my taxes.
15:05It was just like, oh, what's this? It's very official.
15:08And when I opened it, it's all in very kind of legalese language.
15:13And I thought it was saying that I'd got a CBE,
15:17which, you know, I was thrilled about.
15:19I just couldn't believe it.
15:20At the bottom of the letter, it said, if you ring this number,
15:23there'll be somebody you can talk to and ask questions.
15:27So I rang this nice lady and I said, you know, it's Twiggy here.
15:30I've just got my letter.
15:32Am I right in understanding it's a CBE that I'm being offered by the palace?
15:37And she said, no, no, it's a damehood.
15:39I went, oh, my goodness.
15:42She said, I think you better sit down and make yourself a nice gin tea.
15:47I mean, I don't like gin, actually,
15:49but it was given to me by the then Prince Charles and now King Charles.
15:53When he pinned it on my jacket, he said, it's about time you got this,
15:57which I thought was very sweet.
16:01This is the first poster for our film Twiggy,
16:06which is a documentary directed by Sadie Frost on my life.
16:09It's just been released nationwide.
16:11It happened because Sadie Frost, who's a wonderful actress,
16:15and she's been a model and various things.
16:18And she, about three years ago, she did a beautiful documentary on Mary Quant.
16:24And I do a podcast called Tea with Twiggy.
16:28And her people asked if she could come on to promote Quant.
16:32So I said, brilliant.
16:34She came on the podcast, got on really well.
16:36And I said to her, are you going to do any other documentaries?
16:40And she said, I'd love to do another one.
16:43And she said, I love doing Mary Quant,
16:45because I love doing all the stuff from the 60s and getting all the archives.
16:49And it's such a great period.
16:51So I'd like to find somebody that worked within the 60s era.
16:56And then she said, oh, I should do you.
16:59So I kind of said, oh, OK, well, let's talk about it off camera.
17:04So the following week, we went out to lunch.
17:06And it's worked out brilliantly.
17:08And we had the premiere a couple of weeks ago.
17:10And it's gone down a storm.
17:12So I'm really happy for Sadie.
17:14I'm happy for me.
17:15And it's been a very happy experience.
17:17And I love that photo.
17:18Again, that's an old photograph.
17:20But it's a nice poster.
17:22Most people have a photo album of their lives.
17:25But to actually see your life unfold in front of you on a big screen,
17:30it's very emotional.
17:32You know, it's interesting looking at these photographs
17:35because I've done lots and lots of different things.
17:38I still continue to do lots of different things.
17:41And I think that's what's kept me kind of interested in my career
17:45because I didn't stick to just modeling.
17:48But it was because I met people who gave me the chance to do other things.
17:52I think I was so young when I was discovered
17:55that I was kind of thrown into that spotlight.
17:58I've had an amazing life, amazing career.
18:01I'm not moaning about it.
18:05This is Twiggy.
18:06And this has been my life in looks.
18:08And it's been amazing to look back.
18:11Very, very happy memories.
18:31© BF-WATCH TV 2021