Inspiration Index 10: Time to Get Ugly!
My wardrobe–outside work, anyway–consists mostly of blue jeans and black t-shirts. If I’m feeling particularly flashy (the nights I want to go out and paint the town beige), I might wear a shade of dark grey. The closest I’ll ever get to a runway is white-knuckling it in an idling jet plane. I like nice clothes just fine, but on my list of priorities, they generally appear several pages back.
So what in God’s name am I doing writing about fashion?
A little while back I came across Ugly NY, the website for the New York office of Ugly Talent. I think I might’ve finally found a modeling agency for the rest of us. Well, alright, maybe your burning ambition isn’t to be a model (mine’s not–great face for radio, and all that), but Ugly Talent (originating in London, with offices opened not long ago in New York)* features models that look like real people. Imagine that.
Let’s face it, most models–whether in glossies or on runways–don’t look like anybody you or I know. Well, that I know, anyway. So we’re stuck with frame upon frame, page after page, of people who don’t look real–and who, incidentally, haven’t eaten since the first Bush administration. The closest we get is when someone routinely glamorous decides to ditch the makeup for an easy Oscar nod. The great thing about Ugly is that these are people who look like the same people you encounter every day on the streets and subways, in bookstores and coffee bars (I wonder, in fact, if they routinely send their talent scouts to Starbucks; there’s an awful lot of baristatude on this site).
The message is twofold: there’s an implicit “You can be a model!” promise here. More to the point, though, when everybody and their aunt is worried over body image–especially when it comes to their younger daughters, nieces, et cetera–there’s an awful lot to be said for a website’s worth of people who are model-caliber exactly as they are… crooked noses, lopsided smiles, crooked teeth, fauxhawks, a few extra pounds and all.
*Postscript, September 2009: It would appear that UGLY NY has closed; their site’s gone, and the UGLY London site no longer references UGLY NY. I’ve emailed to confirm, and will run an update when I find out more.
Tags: modeling agencies, models, UGLY London, UGLY NY