Twiggy labelled dress, c. 1967-1969
Obviously Twiggy herself isn’t obscure, but it’s not well known that she also had a clothing line in stores from 1967 to 1970.
Soon after Lesley Hornby (aka Twiggy) became England’s top mod model in 1966 she was approached about launching a line of clothes. The initial offer came from English manufacturer Berkertex, however, Twiggy pulled out when she realized the offer was essentially a licensing deal and she would have no input or influence over what was sold bearing her name.
Twiggy instead struck a deal with Taramina Textiles – a firm looking to get into the Mod market, away from the matronly range of fashions they were known for. Twiggy had approval over the line as well as input into choosing the designers Pamela Proctor and Paul Babb, both of whom were fresh out of the Royal College of Art.
The Twiggy line was launched to the media in November 1966 with the slogan ‘It’s a Twiggy World.’ The look was a mix of Quant-style Mod and 1920s nostalgia featuring strong colours and psychedelic and flower power prints – plus every purchase came with a ‘portrait hanger’ featuring Twiggy’s face.
Leslie Hornby (aka Twiggy) posing with her portrait hangers, one of which was included with each purchase of a Twiggy dress, 1967
In March 1967, a tour to promote the Twiggy brand in the U.S. started off well with millions of dollars in orders flooding in, but without an American manufacturer pirated copies soon saturated the market. Despite this, the Twiggy brand expanded in 1967 to include a line of Twiggy hosiery by Hampton, and Twiggy eyelashes and eye make-up from Yardley.
In 1970 Twiggy discovered dresses from her line were also being made by Taramina Textiles under the label ‘Miss T’ – a line for which she received no financial compensation. The Twiggy line of fashions ended in 1970 – the same year Twiggy gave up modelling.
According to her autobiographies, Twiggy made a lot of her own clothes in the beginning, which was why she wanted to have some input in the clothes produced bearing her name, and why it mattered to her so much that they should be clothes that reflected things she would wear herself.
It’s interesting that she wanted a bit of control over the line.
Have you ever seen one of the hangers? I wonder if they are labeled in any way.
I did see one of her hangers once in a vintage clothing store but it wasn’t for sale and it wasn’t identified as being of Twiggy. I also saw a styrofoam hat form with the same face on the front of it, so there must have been a line of Twiggy hats. The styrofoam head form was on eBay years ago and the seller didn’t call it a Twiggy head form, so my guess is they aren’t marked, but the end price went quite high, so there must have been at least two bidders who recognized what it was…