A new modeling agency has opened up in London with an important social message: you don't have to be extremely beautiful and thin to be a model — you can also be extremely beautiful and thin, with a kooky hairstyle.
"Tall, thin, and beautiful is how most people would describe the average runway model," writes Erin Cunningham on the Daily Beast. "Certain professional models, however, have begun to break the stereotype, bringing their individual style and unique personalities to the world of high fashion." She lists a few: Chloe Norgaard, who is 5'10", thin and extremely beautiful — but she has rainbow-colored hair!!; Dorith Mous, who is 5'9" (short little thing), thin and also shockingly beautiful; and Mariacarla Boscono, who is 5'8" (HOW DOES SHE REACH THE COUNTER WHEN SHE'S BRUSHING HER TEETH?), thin, also very beautiful — but apparently she did something weird with her hair lately. Yes, indeed, these women are seriously breaking the mold.
If you're aching for more paradigm-shifting thin, beautiful humans with rebellious hair, then you're in luck: the London-based "Anti-Agency" has sprouted up in order to give these model-looking humans the representation they've so long been denied. Says Cunningham, "Anti-Agency has established itself on the premise of being, naturally, nothing like a typical modeling agency." "We don't have requirements for size or height, one of the agency's founders told the Daily Beast. She adds, "For us, models should get booked based on their personality." Huh. But by some strange cosmic coincidence, it seems, their roster is comprised entirely of attractive and thin people — with personality, though, which manifests itself in their hairstyles and playful little hats.
According to the agency website, Anti Agency is "for people who could've been models and decided not to, for people who are too cool to be models and people with real lives on the verge of exploding in music, fashion, art, illustration & creative industries etc." So, in other words, it's a modeling agency for very attractive people who are not professionally employed as models because they have other, cooler jobs. That's fine, whatever — if you want to create a service that matches up model-esque people's siiiick personal brands with big corporate brands, so that said companies can appeal to the masses with "authenticity," go for it! I'm down! I like seeing fashionable people with interesting tattoos on billboards as much as the next person.
But, please, don't frame it like it's some kind of massive paradigm-shift.
Images via AntiAgency.