Twiggy

Twiggy (née Lesley Hornby) was a young British girl who became a worldwide sensation in the late 1960's.

With an impossibly thin figure, boyish cut hair and huge, striking eyes, she represented the free-spirited, youthful look that was very in vogue at that time.

Twiggy is considered the world's first supermodel, and the first person to be immortalized as her own Barbie doll by Mattel, in 1967.

What is less known is that Mattel wasn't the first company to immortalize Twiggy as a "doll". There was also a Twiggy mannequin.

Adel Rootstein was founder of her own mannequin company in the late 1950's. What set Rootstein mannequins apart was that their figures were sculpted by artists, based on real people. This ensured that the mannequins would appear as realistic as possible.

To this day, the Rootstein company uses real people to create their mannequins, which are considered the best in the world.

Adel Rootstein discovered Twiggy right before she became a household name. By the time Twiggy, herself, first visited New York in 1967, her mannequins were already in the windows of the finest shops in the city!

images: (top) linda-project.com
(middle) source unknown
(bottom): rootstein.com