LONDON, Feb 16 (TNS): Long necks, large chins, flapping ears, crooked noses welcome to Ugly Models, a London modeling agency of a different stripe, where imperfections are celebrated.
Fashion week opens in the British capital Friday, and among the legions of models strutting down the catwalk, several will come from Ugly. They make eye-catching additions to the perfectly honed or androgynous models that typically feature at fashion’s annual showcase in London. It’s celebrating diversity really and it’s bringing a bit more light to fashion instead of just using the bog-standard models. He describes it as a character model agency from fat, thin, to large to small you name it, we’ve got it. Founded a half century ago, Ugly occupies trendy open-plan space in west London featuring a baroque sofa, brushed aluminum computers and walls studded with photos of models. A portrait of late rock superstar David Bowie adorns the wall, alongside the quote “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius,” which reads like a company motto. Like any such agency, it manages the careers of its models, putting them in touch with employers of all stripes, from Burberry to Mercedes to Jack Daniel’s. On a recent weekday, Ugly was organizing a casting to complete its catalogue and those in attendance were atypical models. Among them were some tough-looking guys. Chris, for example, a former soldier with arms as thick as logs, posed shirtless with a 50-year-old brunette in a two-piece suit. Kris Chesney, an ex-rugby player with Toulon and Saracens, is a man mountain at nearly two metres (over six feet) tall and weighing 135 kilogrammes (almost 300 pounds). With his shaved head, tattooed arms, rugged face, and body bearing the marks of countless scrums, he is perhaps an unlikely male model. It’s a new journey, something interesting, like a challenge,” he said Others are on more of a personal mission.