JC

Here’s another story - in SFGate - that explores the increasing demand for “ambiguous” looking models. Apparently, as the article points out, there is a growing field of model agencies that sell “real people.” 

Many model agencies in town have “real people” components, but the field seems to be heating up. “The public has become more and more skeptical of what’s being sold to us, so the more believable, the more like us, the people in the ads are, the more convincing the advertisements are,” says William Delzell, owner of Blue Sky People, a San Francisco online real people casting service. The Web site, http://www.blueskypeople.com/, was introduced two months ago.

The market is hottest for East Indian or mixed-race models at the moment, Blackwell says. Two years ago, clients were asking more for Asians and Latinos. “In almost every job we get, the client asks for a combination of ethnicities, but ‘ethnically ambiguous,’ the most popular client request of the moment, is always one of them,” she says.

Frisch, the Nancy’s quiche model, falls perfectly into that category with her olive skin, dark hair and eyes, so she’s Ms. Popularity these days. “Jennifer can do urban professional, mom, athletic, elegant, pretty. She’s one of our favorite talents,” Blackwell says.

A 45-year-old mother of two, a marathon runner and freelance graphic designer, Frisch gets modeling jobs once or twice a month, with Blackwell and on her own, for companies as varied as eBay, Adidas and Lenox china. She could be Italian. Or is she Spanish? Or Portuguese? “I get that one a lot,” she says of the latter. Her unusual heritage may come as a surprise. “I’m German and Jamaican.”