Leslie Hornby

Models from the 1960s are considered more sophisticated than today's hostages of ideal figures. Girls dreamed of being like Ursula Andress, Jean Shrimpton, Jane Fonda, and men visited these images in their wildest fantasies. Twiggy stood out against the background of long-haired beauties. The boyish figure, doll make-up and short haircut inspired the photographer Andy Warhol, the designers of Marks & Spencer, and with them the whole world.

The biography of Leslie Hornby (real name Twiggy) dates back to September 19, 1949 in London. The girl is the third child in the family of Nelly Lydia Ryman, a printing house employee, and William Norman Hornby, a carpenter. Before her, Shirley was born in 1934, and Vivienne in 1942. The family inherited Jewish roots from the maternal grandfather.

Already in her youth, Leslie took the first steps towards the fashion world - she sewed clothes for herself. She was not chasing designer items, but with her parameters (height 166 cm and weight 40 kg) it turned out to be difficult to look attractive in clothes from the store. By the way, because of the figure, the model received the nickname Twiggy, which means "fragile", "thin" (English Twig - "reed").

At the age of 15, Leslie and her older sister Vivienne got a job in a beauty salon. The youngest Hornby showed a subtle sense of style: she did not just do hair and makeup, but chose a unique image for clients.

In January 1966, renowned London stylist Leonard Lewis, owner of the Leonard of Mayfair, was looking for a model on which to try out a short haircut, later called a pixie, and Leslie was advised. The girl's idol was Jean Shrimpton, and to be like her, the future star grew her hair. Leonard not only cut them to look like a boy, but also dyed them blond. It took 7 hours to create the image.

To demonstrate the results to clients, Leonard hired renowned fashion photographer Barry Lategan. He, experienced in communicating with models, predicted a great future for Leslie and advised him to take the pseudonym Twiggy.

Leslie's photo at the Leonard of Mayfair caught the eye of Deirdre McSherry, fashion editor for the Daily Express magazine. A few weeks later, the publication published material about Twiggy with pictures and a subtitle: "Baby Cockney, in whose face a hundred images are hidden ... and she is only 16 years old" ... In a Daily Express article, she was dubbed "The Face of 1966." From that moment on, Leslie's career took off.

Twiggy's manager was her lover, stylist Nigel Davis (changed his name to Justin de Villeneuve). In her autobiography "Twiggy In Black and White" (1998), the model said that they met when she was working as an assistant in a beauty salon. The man was 10 years older. Until 1970, he made decisions for Twiggy, and then credited himself with discovering the fashion star of the 1960s.

Fashionable looks, angular shapes, "a new kind of androgynous sex appeal," as the Daily Express described, attracted the interest of Vogue magazine. A month after the article was published, they invited the girl for a photo shoot. In total, the model has appeared on the cover of the leading fashion magazine 13 times.

Annie Leibovitz, Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Melvin Sokolsky, Stephen Meisel paid £ 80 an hour for the opportunity to capture Twiggy in their own way. The image of the 1960s star was based on three traits: thinness, short hair and lush eyelashes - rarely in any photo shoot, Twiggy was filmed without makeup, which became her trademark.

In 1967, Twiggy launched the Twiggy Dresses line of clothing, which exploded the fashion industry.

Deciding to change the situation, in March of the same year, the girl moved to New York and became an international sensation. She starred for fashion magazines in France, Japan and the United States, appeared on the cover of Paris Vogue in May, US Vogue in April, July and November, and British Vogue in October.

The fashion house called her image "extravagant, reflecting the style of the 1960s." According to feminist Linda Delabero, Twiggy became

Twiggy spawned a wave of androgynous style: sundresses with rough collars and ties, suits and dresses with elements of military uniform. French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent dressed women in men's tuxedos. Twiggy was blamed for the introduction of the concept of unisex, as well as the fact that the girls specifically dropped weight up to 40 kg.

After four years in the modeling business, in 1970, Twiggy announced her retirement:

After completing her modeling career, Twiggy showed interest in several areas of art at once. Weekly, the girl met with British director Ken Russell, and he showed her old films with Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and other famous Hollywood actors. This gave her an idea for a new image: she wore berets, long skirts, and used fresh flowers as accessories.

The first creative duet of Hornby and Russell was released in 1971 - the musical "Buddy". For her role in this film, Twiggy received two Golden Globes: for a successful debut and as the best actress. In parallel with filming, the girl released her first single "Zoo de Zoo Zong".

In 1973, Twiggy co-starred with David Bowie for the cover of his seventh album, Pin Ups. The record lasted 21 weeks on the first line of the British charts. In 1974, the former model debuted as a theater artist, playing Cinderella on the West End stage in London. In the same year, the thriller "W" was released.

In the center of the story is a woman played by Hornby, whose husband is in prison for trying to kill her. Running away from the past, she changes her name, starts a new family. And when it seems that life has improved, strange events begin to take place in the city: during the day the police find three corpses, each signed with the letter "W" - the initial of the heroine's ex-husband.

In 1975, Twiggy made her debut at London's Albert Hall, performing Roger Glover's rock opera The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast. Video footage from the concert was released in theaters a year later. A year later, the girl signed a contract with Mercury Records and released two albums at once - "Twiggy" and "Get My Name Right". The first compilation reached 33rd place in the UK charts and received critical acclaim.

In subsequent years, Twiggy completely immersed herself in the acting sphere: she starred in the films “Here Comes the Bride” (1979), “The Blues Brothers” (1980), “Pygmalion” (1981) based on the work of the same name by Bernard Shaw; in 1983 she made her Broadway debut in the musical "My One and Only", for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. In 1986, she played with Robin Williams in the Paradise Club, and tried on the role of Hannah Chaplin, mother of the silent film legend, in the TV series Young Charlie Chaplin.

In 2003 the second solo album "Midnight Blue" was released. 17 of the 20 tracks are material written from 1982 to 1990, including a duet with Leo Sayer "Save the Last Dance for Me" and a cover of "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones.

In 2005, Twiggy returned to the world of fashion, for 5 seasons (from the fifth to the ninth), taking a place on the jury in the project "America's Next Top Model", and also starred in an advertisement for the designers Marks & Spencer.

In the summer of 2009, Twiggy was featured in a fan scandal. She starred in a commercial for Olay's Definity Eye Cream, and the photo generated a strong reaction from the public and the media. It turned out that during the processing of the image, retouching was used: "Olay" removed the wrinkles around the woman's eyes. As a result, the photo had to be removed from all advertising platforms.

In November 2011, the collection "Romantically Yours" was released, which included covers of famous romantic hits: "My Funny Valentine", "Someone to Watch over Me", "They Can't Take That Away from Me". The disc also features Neil Young's song "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" performed by Twiggy's daughter Karlie Whitney with a guitar solo by Brian Adams.

Twiggy dreamed of children. In 1977, she married actor Michael Whitney, and a year later gave birth to their daughter Carly. The marriage was happy. Husband and wife lived in perfect harmony until, in 1983, Michael died of a heart attack.

A year later, a happy period began again in her personal life - on the set of the film "Madame Suzatska" Twiggy met Lee Lawson. They got married in 1988 in Long Island. The woman took her husband's surname, therefore, according to the documents, her name is Twiggy Lawson. The Lawson family now lives in Suffolk, UK.

Twiggy has retired from creative activity and is engaged in charity work. Since 2008, she has been providing financial support to research in the field of breast cancer ("Fashion Targets Breast Cancer"), participates in the campaign against fur. Together with Tom Hiddleston, Joe Brand, E. L. James and other celebrities, he regularly donates funds to the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children.

Twiggy talks about achievements, charity events and fashion news on social networks, although publications rarely appear. She has accounts on Twitter and Instagram, but posts are not published regularly.

1971 - Buddy 1974 - W 1979 - Here Comes the Bride 1980 - The Blues Brothers 1981 - Pygmalion 1986 - Paradise Club 1988 - Madame Susatska 1989 - Young Charlie Chaplin 1993 - "Body bags" 1998 - "Battle for a new world" 2005 - "Shakespeare in a new way"

Leslie Hornby 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Leslie Hornby in 2020?

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2021

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.1M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $788.2K - $1.7M.

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2020

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.6M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $661.6K - $1.2M.

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2019

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.2M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $661.9K - $1.2M.

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2018

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.3M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $863K - $2M.

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2017

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.7M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $916.9K - $1.8M.

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2016

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.9M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $749.3K - $1.3M.

Leslie Hornby Net Worth 2015

Leslie Hornby 's revenue is $1.9M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Leslie Hornby and could vary in the range between $715K - $1.5M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Leslie Hornby. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Leslie Hornby make a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Leslie Hornby' projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.