Twiggy was a major trendsetter in America during the sixties, even though she hailed from England. While working as a shampoo girl in a salon, she was discovered by Nigel Davies, who saw her potential and immediately took her to a trendy salon in London to get a haircut. The owner put her picture in his shop window, and a short time later that picture was featured in the London Daily Express with a capt

ion that read, “This is the face of 1966” (“Twiggy: Click! Click!”). After discovering the fifteen year-old with the 31-22-32 figure, Davies—who preferred to be called Justin De Villeneuve—became Twiggy’s agent and boyfriend at age 25. He took her to Paris and a short while after her popularity grew, she was put on the cover of Elle magazine, as well as Paris Match, and the British edition of Vogue.

During Twiggy’s peak success in Europe, De Villeneuve set up Twiggy Enterprises, Ltd., where he gathered a line of clothes, false eyelashes, cosmetics, dolls, and posters all endorsed by Twiggy (“The Twig”). The enterprising aspect of being a top model began with Twiggy and her influence is commonly seen in the business world today. In the sixties, the thought of a model taking advantage of her success to start a fruitful business was completely revolutionary. By doing exactly that, Twiggy paved the way for models like Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell, all of whom opened highly successful restaurants and endorsed exercise tapes, clothes, calendars, posters, and many other products

Today, the average woman is approximately 5’5 and weighs 150 pounds, while fashion models are usually close to six feet tall and weigh barely 120 pounds—often far too skinny to be healthy (Givens Page 66). Over three-fourths of professional models have body weights below normal (Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior: Negative Body Images) and about one-fourth of them meet the criteria for anorexia nervosa, a life-threatening disease (Givens Page 66). Paying these models huge sums of money and pasting their pictures on magazine covers and pin-ups, the fashion industry g

Some topics in this essay:
Kate Moss, Warner Ironically, Britain Europe, Enterprises Ltd, Cunningham Page, Cheever Page, Naomi Campbell, Givens Page, Leslie Hornby, Jinx Falkenburg, top models, fashion industry, image ideal woman, eating disorders twiggy, page 136, hate bodies, givens page, cunningham page, fashion models, kate moss, givens page 66, today’s top models, popularity allowed, “twiggy click”, cunningham page 136,