[Above pic: Twiggy and one with her co-hosts Paula Reed (L) and Lauren Laverne(R)]

Former supermodel Twiggy Lawson might have revolutionised the fashion world in the 1960s with her androgynous look and thin frame, but the now 60-year-old says she did not love her body like the rest of the world did back then.

'I think it's a teenage thing. I don't think I've met a teenager happy with the way she looks.

'If you have boobs, you don't want them; if you don't, you want to have them,' she says in a telephone interview.

Speaking from her apartment in Kensington, London, she explains that she got her skinny genes and small bones from her dad.

'It's something that you grow out of. You either live with your body or do something about it,' adds Lawson, who was known simply as Twiggy in her heyday.

However, she thinks that there is an obsession with being skinny these days and that is something she hopes to change.

'I don't think everyone should be skinny. The most important thing is to be healthy,' she says.

For her clothing line, which she launched earlier this year on the online portal of Littlewoods - for many years, Britain's leading mail-order catalogue - she uses a range of models, from those who are petite to shapely.

Her latest TV programme, Twiggy's Frock Exchange, is currently showing on BBC Lifestyle (StarHub Channel 432) every Tuesday at 10pm.

Each week, a group of women armed with five pieces of clothing that they do not want swop them for the clothes that are available on the show.

'Finding something that you love and can carry off is quite tricky, and that is part of the fun of the show,' she says with a hearty laugh.

She adds: 'If it was me, I would go for the tailored jackets because I love the 1940s look.'

1 You've modelled, cut albums, acted, written books and launched your own clothing line. What else would you want to achieve?

I feel very fortunate that I have done all these things, and I probably want to do more stage work.

I will be releasing a new album at the end of the year and I've been so busy the last few years doing other things, so I would like to do a bit more theatre work.

2 With all this under your belt, would you consider yourself successful?

Success is making it in the field that you choose to go into, and juggling your home life and your business life.

It is no good having a business life if you don't have a home life.

I am happily married and I have two grown children, one of my own and one I inherited through my marriage, both of whom I am extremely proud.

3 What is the biggest sacrifice you have had to make for your work?

I don't think I have made any. I've got a family that I love and adore and I've never sacrificed them for work. We've always managed to go everywhere as a family and we still see one another all the time.

I think each individual has to find the balance. My home life has been important even when I was young and I was with my parents. I had a steady upbringing and a happy childhood, so that was my background.

4 How would you describe your style?

I don't know. I love tailored jackets and trouser suits. Boyish things, not frilly. I wear dresses but I feel much more comfortable in a great suit.

And I love 1940s jackets, those with a pinched-in waist and great shoulders. I just like to be comfortable.

When I was younger, I wore things that were uncomfortable for fashion, but as you grow older, you don't do that anymore.

5 What is something you would never wear?

Trousers that end below the knees, and were fashionable in the early 1970s?

I don't think they are good for anybody, whatever shape you are. They are very unflattering.

I would never be caught dead in them - it would be a fashion faux pas.

6 What tips can you give to others on keeping in shape?

I am not fanatical but I exercise by doing pilates and tap dancing. You have to keep fit in one form or another.

Eat healthily. I don't diet but I am into organic food and I love to cook.

We have become a world of buying fast food and that is not good. We need to get back to the basics and eat fresh food.

Everything in moderation. I love chocolate but I don't eat masses of it. If you deprive yourself, you'll just go mad.

7 With whom and where do you shop?

Everywhere. I'm a great high-street fan and I shop with my daughter sometimes. We even buy the same things, usually a jacket.

She's very stylish and I love her style. She's got her own look that she has developed, and I'm probably a fuddy- duddy mum.

8 Complete this sentence: If I could live my life all over again...

I've had an amazing life, even with the bad things that happen, but that is part of life, like losing people. But my life has been extraordinary and I wouldn't change a thing.

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Twiggy's Frock Exchange airs on BBC Lifestyle (StarHub Channel 432) on Tuesdays at 10pm.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.