Feature - Interview with Barry Lategan

It was a pleasure to have legendary Vogue photographer Barry Lategan join us in the MyHairDressers.com studio to shoot the finished photographs for Tim Hartley and Tracy Hayes’ hairdressing tutorials.

Whilst he was here he told us about his long association with some of the legends of the hair industry and how a certain young shampoo-ist came to be in front of his camera before rocketing to global fame as one of the world’s first supermodels.  

Tell us how you first met Twiggy
“I worked a lot with hairdressers in my early days, hence being here today. I liked to work with new models and new models were always seeking new photographs and it gave me a chance to develop my portfolio. My reputation circulated among hairdressers, and I worked with a well-known ladies hairdresser, Rose Ivansky. In those days, hairdressing was a woman’s profession and then more men came into the profession, like Vidal Sassoon, Andre Bernard, Michael John, Leonard. And over the years I worked with many hairdressers like Christopher Brooker, Nicky Clarke, John Frieda, Sam McKnight and did many campaigns for L’Oreal.  

“Leonard was a hairdresser I had worked with many times and he turned up one day and asked if I would see a girl he’d seen in a salon who he wanted to do a haircut on. Nigel Davis, an East End hairdresser had introduced this girl to Leonard, so they came to my studio with this little girl, 5ft 6inches and skinny, called Lesley Hornby. 

“She was looking around the studio and Nigel said, “Stop biting your nails Twigs!”
I said, “What did you call her?”
He said “Twiggy, because she’s so skinny.”
I told her, “If you go professional, use that name.”   

“I phoned Leonard afterwards and told him that I thought she was a bit scraggy but he cut her hair anyway and sent her back. Her hair was cut short in a boyish cut and her eyelashes were painted onto her face, which was an idea by Nigel, after his sister’s Barbie doll. So Nigel is the originator in creating her. She just looked at me in front of the camera. I shot the picture and sent it to Leonard and he hung it his salon, House of Leonard. 

“A few days later a journalist from the Daily Express called because she wanted to write an article about this girl. I told her she lived in Neasdon and her nickname was Twiggy. Two days later the Express published the picture saying “Twiggy - The Face of ‘66” and that was the start of it.   

“Nigel changed his name to Justin De Villeneuve and started managing her. He took her to the notable photographers of the time - Avedon, Penn and she became world famous (she appeared in 13 international Vogue editorials in the first year). Teenagers loved her because she was a working class girl and down to earth.”  

How was your experience in the MyHairDressers.com studio?
“I’ve always enjoyed the act of photographing - I do it all the time. I like looking and seeing things - we don’t always SEE what we look at, but the two are conjoined.  

“It was a marvellous day for me to see how someone else sees things, how hairdressers see the decoration of women. Women are the most marvellous subjects for us, men clothe themselves and women decorate themselves. Women associate themselves with fabrics, colours and textures to fill an Aladdin’s Cave.  

“It’s not vanity, it’s the self expressive way that women are. If you look throughout history, women have been extolled for the way they are, the way they look, the way they recline, the way they sit, even in modern ways when we see them in pin-ups using their sexual attraction. They are the essence of our lives.” 

Visit Barry's website >>

MyHairDressers.com is pleased to announce it wiill be launching a new online inspirational hairdressing photo gallery soon. We'll keep you informed as it develops!