Mathias Lauridsen

Mathias Lauridsen is a Danish model whose distinctive cheek scar has made him one of menswear’s most recognizable figures. His beauty has an unusual tension, delicate in repose but capable of a severe, almost challenging expression. It helped define the leaner male fashion image of the 2000s, then adapted to a career in which maturity and fatherhood became part of the photograph.

Born in Copenhagen, Mathias entered modeling in 2003 and quickly began working internationally, appearing on the runway for Marc by Marc Jacobs. Early work for Jil Sander established his affinity with a precise, restrained image of fashion.

In 2004, he appeared in Hermès advertising photographed by Richard Avedon, a significant meeting between a new face and one of the twentieth century’s defining portraitists. His subsequent role in Gucci Pour Homme II fragrance advertising extended his recognition beyond the seasonal runway.

Mathias has kept an interest in making images alongside his work in them. In an early interview with Tyra.com, preserved in a fan archive, he described drawing and painting as enduring passions, with an interest in graphic work too. He also spoke warmly about Copenhagen, where family and longstanding friendships made home more compelling than a move to another fashion capital. His account separated the international demands of modeling from the life he valued away from it.

That distinction has become less rigid in some of his later work. Mathias appeared in a 2021 Massimo Dutti feature styled by his wife, Zara Zachrisson, bringing a personal creative partnership into his professional life. A return to the cover of DANSK for its twentieth anniversary in 2022 connected him to the Danish fashion culture that accompanied his early career.

Fatherhood has added another dimension to his image. After appearing with his son for Mango, Mathias joined Ossian in Gucci’s 2025 Father’s Day campaign. For a model often photographed as an enigmatic individual, these family portraits offer a different intimacy, rooted in a relationship that exists beyond the set.