About the Model
Agyness Deyn
Agyness Deyn was not taught to model, she was born to model. Deyn is from Failsworth in Greater Manchester. The daughter of a nurse, Lorraine, and is the second of three children. She attended All Saints RC High School, as well as Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School and Sixth Form in Waterfoot, Rossendale. Deyn’s name was apparently coined to further her modelling career after she consulted her mother’s friend, a numerology expert who advised her of the most ‘fortuitous’ way to spell the name ‘Agnes’.
It was reported that her mother Lorraine and sister Emily have both changed their surname to Deyn, while Lorraine has changed the “I” in her first name to “Y”. Deyn’s working life started serving parttime aged 13, at a fish and chip shop in Ramsbottom. Even at an early age, she had an eye for style. By 17, she had already had her head shaved.
“I’ve had short hair since I was 13, and when I was 17, I had a skinhead.” In 1999, she won the Rossendale Free Press “Face of ’99” competition, at the early age of 16. She then moved to London, working in a fast-food restaurant during the day and a bar at night but admits, “It didn’t quite work.”
During this time she says she was also at college in Hull, studying drama and music. She was signed up by Models 1 when she visited the agency. On May 2007, she was featured on the cover of Vogue from USA, alongside Doutzen Kroes, Caroline Trentini, Raquel Zimmermann, Sasha Pivovarova, Jessica Stam, Coco Rocha, Hilary Rhoda, Chanel Iman, and Lily Donaldson as the new crop of supermodels.
She has also been featured on the covers of UK Vogue, the Observer Woman supplement, The Sunday Times Style, Pop, Grazia, Time Style & Life, Vogue Italia, and numerous other international publications. As for professional endorsements, Deyn has appeared in advertisements for Anna Sui, Blugirl by Blumarine, Burberry, Cacharel, Gianfranco Ferré, Moussy, Maison Gilfy, Shiseido, Giorgio Armani, Mulberry, Paul Smith, Reebok and Vivienne Westwood.
While garnering such prestigious contracts, she is currently the face of the new fragrance The Beat by Burberry, Gold by Giles Deacon at New Look replacing Drew Barrymore, Jean Paul Gautier’s fragrance Ma Dame, Shiseido (replacing Angelina Jolie), and childhood friend Henry Holland’s label House of Holland.
In May 2008, Deyn was guest editor of i-D magazine. The issue was devoted to her and includes articles written by and about Deyn, plus interviews she conducted with fashion insiders such as Vivienne Westwood. Deyn is known for her unique and changing hairstyles and likes to mix it up.
There is no end to what Deyn can do and when her look will reinvent itself for a new campaign. For most models, the hardest job is to hone a place modeling amongst modeling’s elite. For Deyn, the right look for each pose comes to her easily. After all, Agynes Deyn is a natural.