Agyness Deyn is from Littleborough in Greater Manchester. She is the second of three children. Her mother Lorraine is a nurse. She attended All Saints RC High School and Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School and Sixth Form in Waterfoot, Rossendale. Deyn's working life started serving cod, chips and mushy peas part-time at 17, which she did in Ramsbottom. In 1999, she won the Rossendale Free Press "Face of '99" competition, aged just 16. She left home for London, working in a burger joint during the day and a bar at night but she admits: "I tried to make cocktails but it didn't quite work." During this time she says she was also at college in Hull, studying drama and music. Aged 18, she was spotted by a photographer and snapped up by Models 1 model agency.

One of her regular customers in the chip shop was best friend Henry Holland, designer and creator of the House of Holland rhyming slogan T-shirts. She is now the face of the company. Deyn has appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia twice -- the November 2006 issue and the September 2007 issue. Both covers were photographed by fashion photographer Steven Meisel.

In the May 2007 issue of American Vogue, she was featured on the cover with fellow models 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.