“We like our women fat and our men geeky, we like the extremely tall and the shockingly small. No one is too abstract for our books! We are Ugly. And we are the leaders in character modeling.” Sound like something you might be interested in? Then maybe you should hightail it to London, which is the home of Ugly Models, the world’s leading character modeling agency. In operation since 1969, Ugly Models boasts over a thousand clients, ranging from 18-100 years old, (UK) sizes 6-30, tattooed, pierced, extremely tall, extremely short, etc.
“I think the number one trait an ugly model’s got to have is what I repeat over and over again -– to be comfortable in their own skin,” says the agency’s current head Marc French. “I think you could say that I am looking for at the auditions -– every kind of character you could think of -– from fat to fit, large to small, and I never know what I’m actually looking for until they come through the door. Our models have worked for everyone from Calvin Klein to Italian Vogue and there is a massive demand for them. We have open auditions and the queues go on for miles with people wanting to get on the books. It’s amazing; you have little old ladies standing in line next to Hell’s Angels all wanting to give it a go.”