Twiggy… omg

[Newsenmum]

I knew she was skinny but I never knew how bad it was! Looking at those photos of her in the 60s is painful.Why do we do this to ourselves? Have we done this since time began?

I was just reading how in the Victorian times there was another skinny phase where women liked to look skinny and weak like they’d had TB. Awful!

Does anyone know if it’s ever been fashionable to be healthy?

The painfully skinny pictures n the OP aren't Twiggy

The "vital statistics" (34 27 36) are perfectly normal - then and now, though I suspect waists were a bit "trained" then as there wasn't so much stretch fabric around.

A 1980s size 10 had a 26/28 waist

What an odd thread to start @Newsenmum almost 60 years after years as a model.

Out of interest what made you do this?

I am just a bit younger than Twiggy. Her size wasn't considered unusual although of course her name- Twiggy- did give a clue to her shape. She was tall and thin but never looked anorexic, and was certainly not as thin as some catwalk models today who do look anorexic.

I think this is sadly, another case of being overweight and obese being the norm these days with 70% of people being one or the other.

In my class at school - from ages 11-18 -there'd be one person (out of 35-40) who was 'fat'.
Compare that to now.

There is also vanity sizing. I was married in the early 1980s. My waist was 24 inches and my wedding dress (off the peg) was a size 10.

"WWII fixed a centuries old problem with ration books for everyone so the badly paid ate adequately."

But even if they had the coupon, if they didn't have the money they still couldn't buy the food?

I looked like twiggy in my teens.
Ddad used to joke about how my legs looked like two pieces of knotted string.
I ate properly too, I certainly didn’t starve myself. But there weren’t the amount of takeaways that there are now

Look at the size of plates from the 60’s and 70’s.. They’re half the size of today’s. Add in all the ‘snacks’ so many people eat, the alcohol and the added fat and sugar in so many products, the over sized portions and you’ll understand why Twiggy was pretty much the normal size back then.

This is one of the very early photos and the later ones are very different. I don't think she ever dieted to make a point, or was told to lose weight. Happy to be told otherwise.

I'm wondering if you're doing some kind of history project/degree/fashion degree that's brought all of this up? You also mention Victorian women.

Twiggy was always considered thin. As I said, I'm almost her age.
I was aware of it at the time, whereas you've found some images and for whatever reason, decided to post about it.

She broke the rules of women having to look 'curvy' and her straight short hairstyle was quite boyish. My generation were 'released' from the fashion of having perms and curly hair! In the late 60s and early 70s, no one was obsessed with being thin, no matter what you think.

Being slim was the norm.

A 1980s size 10 had a 26/28 waist

No. A size 10 was a 24 inch waist certainly in the 1970s and early 80s.

I used to make a lot of my clothes then and the paper patterns showed these measurements.

I don't remember Twiggy, even the nickname seems a bit disrespectful, but wasn't she one of naturally skinny people?

I think we have come a long way. Even the 90s is a gross with the obsession of being slim. That fact it was ok to weight celebrities on telly after having a baby or the special K pinch an inch advert.

Im all about healthy weights but no wonder so many women were messed up in the past.

A 1980s size 10 had a 26/28 waist

No. I size 10 was a 24 inch waist

I used to make a lot of my clothes then and the patterns showed these measurements.

My mum was of the twiggy era and she was a size 6 and considered curvy as she had hips and a bum.

I think we've normalised being overweight or curvy so we now see naturally slim as being unhealthy. My mums diet would probably be perceived as unhealthy now, but she was born in the 1949s and it was the norm. We live in an era of excess (I'm overweight myself), less was known about the importance of nutrition and healthy eating. My dad would eat a full English breakfast, his mum cooked everything in lard before work, but because he worked a manual job for 12 hrs a day, 6 days a week and was also still stick thin.

I agree with you but not about Kate Moss. Remember her quote ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’?? There was definitely a toxic culture with models so you can’t say for sure they eat what they like..

Fuck me, I can’t believe that you seriously suggested that rationing in the 1940’s ensured a decent diet and the healthiest generation of children ever!!???

One meal a day was the most that many working class children managed and it was a far from balanced healthy diet.

You’re clearly taking the piss and/or have fuck all knowledge of what rationing meant back then or the childhood diseases that prevailed at the time.

Your friends say they hate you for being slim?
Odd. I am very slim. Always have been.
None of my friends even comment on my size (apart from when I was underweight and they were concerned) and certainly wouldn't be horrid about it.

My mums wedding dress was tiny, she was a size 6 (it was the 70’s) it looked like it was made for a child. She’s very small framed but also short. Tbh I think slim at the time was quite normal but twiggy was extremely thin.

Twiggy was of my era - she was naturally that slim, and became an icon. Many unrealistic teenagers (including me lol) all wanted to look like her.😄

The Mary Quant look was in.

We all grew out of it, new models came along, and she later went into other professions.

I do agree on one level - and on top of the toxic dieting, there was also cocaine abuse in the mix in the 90s scene, but starving yourself won't change the size of someone's skeleton. Some people (like Twiggy and Kate Moss) are just smaller framed and others larger.

I can diet all I want, but I'm saddled with 37" inch hips for life because my frame dictates that.

But certain bones are supposed to stick out

Eating so you cover yourself in a layer of fat is just not healthy

People ate off dinner plates that would be considered little more than side plates now so naturally ate less

Todays “I am fat so that makes me gorgeous” trend has skewed what is seen as healthy

It's quite simple really, everyone was much lighter back then in the 60's and 70's and 80's probably because nearly everyone smoked, car ownership/being able to drive was not at the levels it is now and being a slim woman rather than a fat one mattered. It was /unusual rare to see obese people like now, those that were probably had a medical condition looking back.

Most drank less than is taken as standard now
Portion sizes smaller
Junk food l/takeaways barely existed. Fish and chip shops and cafes basically in most towns. Cities may have had more choice due to immigrants, and immigration was in its infancy in the 1960's.

Clothes sizing in M&S up into the 80's when they introduced changing rooms in store was totally consistent and more of less as follows (May have been 12 inches between hip and waist, some women did wear girdles to assist with this but they were dying out in the 70's as women's lib as it was called/feminism became mainstream)
10: 32-22-32
12: 34-24-34
14: 36-26-36
16: 38-28-38

Anything bigger was plus size and rare. Women at work were expected to look pretty and indeed attractive women staff were prized over more ahem, functional models. I'm actually embarrassed typing that as an old bird in my 7th decade now, but that's how it was. Even in the mid 80's women were still fighting for their (pretty fundamental) rights in the workplace. Like returning to their old job after having a baby. Massive difference from today!

Marilyn was not fat, or today’s “curvy”, or even today’s size 12. See https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66536/what-dress-size-was-marilyn-monroe-actually

With those measurements (at the start of her career, and I acknowledge she would have changed shape and weight with time) her BMI was 19, which is at the bottom of the normal range.

She did have breasts, and a small waist, and clothes which accentuated the difference between them.

Her look was famous because it was a breakaway from the previous generation of models who had long hair, bigger boobs and very structured, uncomfortable underwear including girdles. The loose 'child like' clothing was more comfortable and didn't restrict movement hence the wacky, 'unladylike' poses in the photos. The previous models also had very small waists (girdles) but bigger boobs (pointy bras). Twiggy wasn't anorexic, she claims she ate like a horse but was naturally slim.

I was a young teen at the time and I think I was the last generation forced into uncomfortable underwear (I had to wear stockings and suspenders as part of my school uniform at 11).

She actually was if you Google it-hence why Kim Kardashian struggled to get into her dress.

But according to her former dressmaker, Monroe’s standard measurements were 35-22-35, meaning that in today’s retail stores, she’d probably wear a size 6 or 8 — which translates to a size 12 back in the 1950s.

katiecouric.com/entertainment/movies-tv/marilyn-monroe-facts-jfk-affair-dress-size/#:~:text=But%20according%20to%20her%20former,12%20back%20in%20the%201950s.

This. I grew up in 70 and was a teenager in the early 80s, I didn't have a take away until I was about 16 because there weren't really any. Shops closed around 5pm so no option of going out for crisps, sweets at night, if it wasn't in the house you couldn't have it. No deliveries of cakes, uber eats etc. I was a size 10 at 8 1/2 stone with a 25" waist, as were all my friends, I remember the rare overweight child at school because it was unusual. Hardly anyone drank at home after work unless they had visitors for the evening, no 'wine o clock' culture. Snacks were unheard of except for the occasional biscuit as a treat, certainly no one took them to school or out with them! We basically eat FAR more than we did 40 years ago, for many reasons.

I think we burnt off a huge amount of calories in the sixties just trying to stay warm, I didn't know anyone who had central heating. Coats would be piled on the bed in winter, and one ancient radiator in the classroom.

It wasn't just about rationing. School meals and work place canteens off ration were introduced so many people, especially from slum housing without adequate food storage or cooking facilities, actually ate better more balanced diets than before. The start of the Welfare State ensured cod liver oil, orange juice and free milk so the babies born in the late 40s and 50s (Baby Boom Generation) were the healthiest.