Jake Shortall is a model you don’t want to mess with. Before he was discovered at a nightclub earlier this year (which has its downsides: “I didn’t remember him when he called the next day,” he says of the agent who scouted him), Shortall was just an average 18-year-old Liverpudlian whose hobbies included stirring up trouble with his mates, listening to hip hop, and training in Muay Thai boxing. “It’s crazy because when I was 15, I thought I would never leave Liverpool,” he tells Style.com. “But I’ve only been home for one week in the past eight months.” During that time, the six-foot-two redhead has gone from striking, sparring, and kicking to walking top runways including Dior, Lanvin, Trussardi, Neil Barrett, and Kris Van Assche, among others. Shorthall has also racked up an impressive portfolio of editorials and campaigns. Catch him in the Steven Meisel-lensed “Prom Night” series in the April issue of Vogue Italia, on the current cover of Vogue Hommes Japan, and in the new Pringle of Scotland ads. (Despite being immersed in fashion now, he admits he has never really cared much for clothes and gives designer gifts away to his mom or friends.)
But long before life in the limelight, Shortall started boxing at age seven as a safeguard against playground bullies, and he eventually switched over to Muay Thai. “I was getting kind of bored with regular boxing and needed something new,” he says. Muay Thai is “mixed martial arts minus the jiu-jitsu part,” he says: where traditional boxers only use their two fists, Thai boxers have eight points of contact so you can punch, kick, jab, block, and strike with your knees and elbows as well. Needless to say, it can get pretty brutal. “I’ve broken three of my ribs, lots of fingers and toes,” Shortall says. He’s delivered the pain, too: “I definitely used one of the technical kicks in the streets once on this guy,” he says. “Wait, that’s going to sound so bad! It was totally unexpected and out of self defense.” His agency has banned him from boxing for the moment to preserve that money-making face, but he plans to return to it “sooner rather than later.”
—Brittany Adams
Photo: Courtesy Photo
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