Exhibition traces history of Birmingham drag queen Twiggy

"Twiggy is a legend of Birmingham's LGBTQ+ community," Ashton Cartmell said

A new exhibition about an influential drag queen has opened at a National Trust site.

Dedicated to "Birmingham LGBTQ+ icon" Twiggy, the exhibition opened on Friday at the Back to Backs, in the heart of the city's Gay Village.

Twiggy - The Drag Market is an exploration of the creative process behind "one of the best-known personas of Birmingham's queer scene".

The exhibition features costumes and photography from the past 40 years.

In the free exhibition, located above the Back to Backs' second-hand bookshop, visitors can follow Twiggy's journey, starting in the early 1980s when Twiggy worked as a shop assistant at the well-loved Birmingham punk shop Kahn and Bell in Hurst Street, run by Jane Kahn and Patti Bell.

Speaking about the exhibition, Twiggy said: "It's my journey through drag on Hurst Street, which is where I began. It's a chance for me to show people what I've done over the last 40 years."

The drag queen said the 1980s was an "amazing time", adding: "Nobody had any money, everybody wanted to go out, you found a way to go out.

"Everybody was creative, they would just make and mend and do as much as possible."

An exhibition dedicated to the drag queen opens at the Birmingham Back to Backs on Friday

Twiggy's fearless fashion grew from a love of sewing and performance.

Many outfits were inspired by 1940s Hollywood, with a particular fondness for stars such as Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.

Ashton Cartmell, operations manager at the National Trust Birmingham Back to Backs, said: "Over the past 200 years there has been a diverse mix of communities in Birmingham's Southside, with tailoring and fashion being a common theme and a big influence for many, including the Back to Backs last business owner, George Saunders, who ran a very successful tailors' shop in the area.

"In the 1980s, the punk shop, Kahn and Bell, just a few doors away from the Back to Backs, sat at the centre of Birmingham's alternative and punk scene.

"Kahn and Bell was an inspiration to countless people and the start of Twiggy's fabulous story."

Twiggy's fashion grew from a love of sewing and performance

Twiggy's name was inspired by their look while working at Kahn and Bell, as they wore fake dreadlocks tied in knots which looked like twiglets.

The free exhibition opens Friday 26 January and runs until the end of May.