Agnyss Deyn

Agnyss Deyn used to be named Laura Hollins and was a fish and chips waitress in Manchester, England. But then she won the Face of Rossendale modeling contest and things changed. She is now considered today’s face of our culture, according to no less an authority than The New York Times.

Now 26, Deyn was in 2007 named by Vogue as one of the world’s  next supermodels, and she has indeed appeared on the runways and in ads for Burberry, Hugo Boss, Reebok, and Armani. Photographers as prominent as Steven Meisel, who photographed her first Vogue cover in 2006, consider her to be the next Kate Moss. In other words, Deyn is an embodiment of cultural change that has come about partly as changes in politics and economics have forced people to rethink their lives. Last year, Glamour named her as someone “Who Will Change Your Style.”

Deyn doesn’t give much of a hint that she wants that particular honor, living as she does in the East Village, and pursuing other options, such as music. But her personal style, which appears to be borrowed directly from the early 1980s somehow looks fresh on her, rather than ridiculous. Or maybe it’s just that the culture at large is ready for something different, and Deyn indicates changes to come.