Leonard Lewis (15 June 1938[1] – 30 November 2016), known professionally as Leonard of Mayfair, was a British hairdresser, credited with creating the haircut that launched the career of prominent 1960s model Twiggy as well as establishing the careers of other successful British hairdressers, including John Frieda, Daniel Galvin, Nicky Clarke, Keith Wainwright and Michael Gordon.
[3] He worked with many of the leading photographers of the day, including Clive Arrowsmith,[4] Terence Donovan, David Bailey and Barry Lategan for fashion publications such as Vogue and Queen, often collaborating with designer Zandra Rhodes who favoured Leonard's colourist, Daniel Galvin, whose vibrant shades of pinks, blues and reds, were revolutionary at the time.
[5] His clients[4] included Jack Nicholson, Jerry Hall, Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, David Frost, Barbra Streisand, Catherine Deneuve, Marsha Hunt (creating her famous bald look), Jean Shrimpton, Ronnie Kray, Reggie Kray, Bianca Jagger, The Beatles, Scott Walker (singer), Liza Minnelli, Faye Dunaway, David Bowie (in his Ziggy Stardust phase), Bob Marley (when he needed his dreads unpicked), John F. Kennedy, long time girlfriend Ivana Zelnickova, Judy Garland, Joan Collins, Donald Trump and Tony Curtis.
Lewis was born in Notting Hill Gate in June 1938,[4] the youngest of four children to parents, Amelia and John,[4] but soon moved to Shepherd's Bush.
His sister Rene, who was twenty years old when he was born, helped bring him up when his mother's eyesight began to fail[4] After a brief stint working at an auction house in Putney[4] and also as a barrow boy,[3] he used his savings to pay for his hairdressing apprenticeship at Evansky's in Mount Street, London, and trained with the legendary Rose Evansky.
[5] He developed a softer cutting technique and his client base soon became as glamorous as Vidal's with Jackie Kennedy, Terence Stamp, Mick Jagger, Grace Kelly, Marie Helvin, Jerry Hall, and Audrey Hepburn.
Jurgen cut their hair in his hotel room on The Left Bank, but the style lacked the boyish appeal that their manager Brian Epstein wanted.
[citation needed] In 1966, Justin de Villeneuve brought a 15-year-old girl called Lesley Hornby with the nickname "Twiggy", to see Leonard, knowing "he was looking for models on whom to try out his new crop haircut".
[4] Leonard trained many of Britain's leading hairdressers, including; Daniel Galvin, John Frieda, and Nicky Clarke.
For A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick wanted actual hair cuts rather than wigs and "forerunners to the punk Mohawk hairstyle, with the sides of the head shaved and the middle part spiked up and brightly coloured."
Starring Marisa Berenson and Ryan O'Neal, rumours circulated that each wig had its own first-class seat on the plane from London to Dublin.