Ugly Models is a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based alternative

modelling agency A modeling agency is a company that represents fashion models, to work for the fashion industry. These agencies earn their income via commission, usually from the deal they make with the model and/or the head agency. The top agencies work with bi ...

that specialises in character modelling. Owner Marc French says it is about "celebrating everyone's unique beauty". Major clients include

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...

Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...

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Elle ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

, and

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, with models appearing in film series such as

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

Pirates of the Caribbean ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' is a Disney media franchise encompassing numerous theme park rides, a series of films, and spin-off novels, as well as a number of related video games and other media publications. The franchise originated with th ...

and

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

. Ugly Models are in official partnership with

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

and represents the world's tallest man, the world's most pierced woman and the world's most tattooed man.

History

Ugly was started in 1969 by Jill Searle to fill a gap in the modeling market for interesting faces. They placed an advert in a newspaper saying "If you've got an interesting face contact Ugly.", people poured in, and the agency took off after they received thousands of applicants from the outset. They created a niche for themselves in supplying advertisers with faces that are not traditionally beautiful to front its campaigns. In 1997, Marc French had the idea of creating an offshoot fashion agency within the company called Rage. Both Rage and Ugly work from the same office but Rage is about conventionally beautiful and 'girl or boy next door types'. Most of the Rage models are dancers, performers or extras. A three-part documentary series titled 'Britain's Ugliest Models' aired in 2010 on Channel 5. It was an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the agency which followed French and his team as they scouted for fresh talent to add to their books in the UK and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

References

{{reflist Modeling agencies Companies based in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Entertainment companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in England

History

See also

References