Sunday Times Magazine, Sunday May 30th, 2004
A Life In The Day Of Twiggy
by Sue Fox
The model Twiggy, 54, was 'the face of '66'. She lives in London with her second husband, the actor Leigh Lawson. She has a daughter, Carly, 25
"If I'm working in the theatre, mornings are for sleeping in. Otherwise I'm the first to wake up. At 8.30am I make tea — a mixture of earl grey and assam. In America I stay in apartment hotels, so I have my own kettle and hotplate. Breakfast is multi-grain cornflakes which don't have wheat in them. Occasionally I might have a piece of toast.
We have an office at home where I go through the masses of stuff that comes in each day with Juliette, my wonderful PA. I'm very involved in the Twiggy skin-care products. The formula of the moisturiser I used for years was changed — things like that drive me insane. You discover an eye pencil you love, then they stop doing the colour. The lesson is: if you see something you like, buy 10 of them.
I've always done my own make-up. When I first started modelling it took me an hour and a half. I'd get up at the crack of dawn to fix my false eyelashes.
I'm always being asked to help charities. But with a career and family to run, there's never enough time. I work for breast cancer, and I'm also involved in some animal charities. I'm a patron of the Halcyon Haven Animal Sanctuary in Cumbria. Last year thugs broke in and brutally killed all the unwanted cats and rabbits they'd taken in, and burnt down the sanctuary. Now they're in jail — not for long enough, in my book.
Because the owners had to find new premises I wrote to all my celebrity friends, who were very generous. And I also help the Wildlife Hospital in Bolton, which is where my dad came from. The guy who runs it lives on a pittance, taking in hedgehogs and sparrows. And near our house in Suffolk there's a place where they take in horses that have been badly treated. I raise money for them too. Sometimes just having your name on a letterhead helps.
I love food-shopping and cooking. I buy organic chicken and vegetables and organic red meat for Leigh. For lunch I have something light — a bowl of soup or parma ham and melon. In shops, people ask for an autograph or just want to chat. I love it.
Yesterday I was choosing paint in Homebase. The man mixing colours said: "Don't I know you? Oh my God! You're Twiggy!" I joked that he wasn't supposed to see through my disguise of dark glasses and no make-up. But I've got such a distinctive accent, everyone knows who I am.
If I'm home in the afternoon, I'm happiest getting out my sewing machine, listening to a play on Radio 4 or a Norah Jones CD. I've always been a very good seamstress. Last week, Carly, my daughter, went with her boyfriend to a fancy-dress party, dressed like Guinevere in a purple velvet empire-line dress I'd made. She looked gorgeous.
I'm a trouser woman at heart. I also love tuxedos, tail coats and 1930s dresses. If I need a special outfit, I call up Amanda Wakeley, Bruce Oldfield or Vivienne Westwood to borrow something. One of the great talents who never really gets the credit she deserves is Barbara Hulanicki, who started Biba. She's the most amazing woman, designing hotels in Miami, still looking fabulous. Biba had a huge influence on me. When I was 14½ I had a Saturday job in Queensway at the hairdressers' where my sister worked. We'd save our tips and then rush out in the lunch hour, jump on the Tube to Kensington and queue up for high boots, or a dress for £2.50. My first Biba dress was yellow with pink zigzags, puffed sleeves and three pearl buttons.
To keep fit, I cycle when we're in the country. In London I sometimes go to the gym over the road. And once a week I do a tap-dancing class with Alison. She's brilliant. It's so much fun. It's fantastic exercise and makes me feel like my hero, Fred Astaire. I'm also having singing lessons — I've been going to Ian for years. He makes me laugh. Once we start nattering, the hardest thing is to keep the lesson going. Even if I'm not performing, I keep up with the classes, because you never know when another song-and-dance project will come up. The phone rings and suddenly your life changes. I love that. I've been very lucky.
Ken Russell and Tommy Tune gave me amazing challenges. Ken cast me in The Boyfriend, and Tommy brought me to Broadway when I'd never been on a stage in my life. Talk to anyone in the business and they say that once you're over 35, nobody wants you. It does get tougher, but lucky things happen. Peter Hall asked me to play Mrs Warren in Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession. His rehearsals were like masterclasses. But learning lines is a hard slog.
I have to know my part parrot-fashion so that the words become second nature and I don't have to think about them. I photocopy lines and take them with me everywhere. When I'm out walking or driving the car, people must think I'm mad, talking to myself.
Meal times are tricky when you're in the theatre. I eat at 4pm to give me energy. By 10, during the last act, I'm starving. At home we watch Channel 4 News and eat around 7.30. I cook Indonesian and Chinese dishes. My coconut chicken is very good. Carly shares a flat with Leigh's son, Jason. We try to see each other for dinner once a week, but they're busy with their own lives, so it doesn't always work out. Luckily, they like coming over here to be with boring Mum and Dad.
I love an early night with a good book — especially novels and thrillers. Jason gave me The Da Vinci Code; it was so exciting I kept all the lights on.
I have never, in all my years, gone to sleep without taking my make-up off — it's the No 1 sin. My dreams really affect me. Bad dreams can upset me all day. But then I can wake up out of a dream where it was so nice, I just want to fall asleep and go back there again. "
