She's a dedicated follower of fashion

Last Thursday, the 21st of July, was Belgium's national holiday and so we had a welcome day off.  The majority of people in Belgium (me included) couldn't care less about what the holiday is actually for. Patriotism isn't exactly strong in Belgium: only the odd Belgian flag is being spotted in the streets, and some of those are leftovers from Belgium's passage in EURO 2016!

As it's a holiday in the middle of summer, when the weather is fine people tend to flock to our country's meagre 67 km of coastline, resulting in endless queues on the motorways. 

No visit to the seaside for us, though. No, we had much more important things to do.  We drove to Blender Vintage Shop, which sadly is currently holding its final sales before closing down altogether, to collect an eagerly awaited new addition to our household.

Meet Twiggy!

Although there seem to be quite a few of these so-called Twiggy mannequin heads for sale (and a lot of them at crazy prices!), I wasn't able to find much actual information about them online.

It seems that in spite of their 1960s look, they date from the 1970s. They were supposedly produced by a French company called Huard, and were used by upmarket French boutiques to display headpieces and scarves. In spite of clearly being based on the iconic and quintessentially British Twiggy, I do indeed detect a certain French "je-ne-sais-quoi" about her.

I'd spent the morning rearranging the mantlepiece in our second bedroom-cum-office-cum-boudoir to make space for her and here she is, happily sharing the space with my other bits and bobs!

She isn't, however, the only Twiggy I own. 

In 1968, Mattel (of Barbie fame) produced a Twiggy doll,  the first Mattel doll fashioned after a celebrity.

She had the same body size as Francie and Casey, dolls introduced by Mattel in 1966 and 1967. 
These dolls were smaller and less buxom than Barbie in order to wear the Mod fashions which were all the rage back then.

Twiggy's namesake was sold in a yellow, blue and green striped mini dress and yellow go-go boots.

Although Twiggy could already choose from the extensive wardrobe produced for Francie and Casey, four tagged outfits were created exclusively for her.

During the time I was collecting Mattel dolls, I was lucky to be able to acquire all four of the outfits, although only two of them are complete with all their little accessories. All of them are quite hard to find.

I got my Twiggy doll to earn her keep and made her model all the outfits for you. 

First up is Twiggy-Do's, which is one of my complete sets: a ribbed knit sleeveless dress accented with green and white bands. 

Accessories included green and white beads, a yellow vinyl shoulder bag and yellow knee socks and shoes.

The next outfit is called Twiggy Turnouts, a mad mini dress in a metallic fabric, with a multicolour striped bodice and silvertone skirt, accented with a wide silver belt at the hip. 











She is supposed to wear silver go-go boots, which alas are missing, but I think the short grey boots she is wearing aren't too bad either. The outfit also came with a swimsuit, of which unfortunately I only have the bottoms.

Twigster consists of a wild yellow and orange print knitted dress combined with a scarf. As it was a hot day, Twiggy begged me to take it off quickly, though. 

Again, the short orange boots she is wearing are a substitute, and the plastic case, which is supposed to contain her make-up kit, is empty.

Finally there is the outfit named Twiggy Gear, which is the second one I was able to buy complete. Twiggy loves wearing this jumpsuit, which has a striped knitted bodice and white vinyl trousers. It closes at the back with a real zip, and is accented at the dropped waist by a blue vinyl belt.

But that's not all! Look at her pink hat with blue vinyl trim, and her cute blue shoes!

The outfit also came with a plastic camera, which I attached to Twiggy's hand with a small clear rubber band. 

Now why didn't Mattel think of providing it with a strap? Nobody just has their camera in their hands, have they? Especially not a camera of that size ...

Finally, I'll show you what I wore to collect Twiggy on Thursday: a sleeveless brown on white box-pleated Tricel dress, accompanied by a white vinyl belt. The dress does have a self fabric belt, but I didn't think it looked right.

The brooch I'm wearing is a vintage ceramic one.

I also wore vintage light blue plastic beads, a white plastic ring and my Miz Mooz sandals which I bought in the sales a couple of years ago.  I paid a silly price for them as there was a difference in colour between the two, which was easily rectified by putting the darkest one out in the sun for a couple of days.

For some reason I think that my dress wouldn't have gone amiss in Mattel's Twiggy collection, although I'm sure Twiggy would have worn it a lot shorter!