TWIGGY – Review by Cate Marquis

Twiggy is director Sadie Frost’s appealing, charming documentary about the 1960s fashion icon known as Twiggy, whose super-skinny form and androgynous looks transformed how the fashion industry thought models were supposed to look. Prior to Twiggy, British fashion models came from the upper classes and were slim but curvy, tall and elegant young adult women. This 16-year-old girl from working class London, who spoke with a Cockney accent, changed all that with her rail-thin, large-eyed, androgynous look, freckled face and approachable, smiling manner. But behind her game-changing looks was a level-headed girl named Leslie from a loving family. The teenager had been interested in becoming a model but she had been told she was “too small” at a mere 5 foot 6 inches, skinny and flat-chested. Yet when a photographer spotted her for a newspaper feature, and sent her to a hair stylist for a new super-short boyish haircut, her photo caused a sensation that made her an international model superstar almost overnight. Practical and hard-working, Leslie took advantage of opportunities with good nature and humor, and under the protective eye of her parents and an older boyfriend who acted as her manager. Behind Twiggy’s freckled face was a charming, likable and often unexpectedly clever person who, with the help of good friends and remarkable good luck, escaped the worst in an industry that could easily have devoured her. Moving from modeling to acting to singing and dancing, and back again, Twiggy has had a surprisingly good life, which director Sadie Frost shows us through abundant archival footage, encounters with other ’60s icons like Paul McCartney, and interviews with friends like Dustin Hoffman and Broadway great Tommy Tune, who are among others who appear to sing her praises in this surprisingly uplifting biographical documentary.