Now, while this seems fun and exciting, it can be tiring and very stressful to some people; especially the models. While I was doing my daily browse through Cosmopolitan's website, I came across an article called "Why One Model Quit Fashion Week." This article immediately interested me because who would ever want to drop out of something as fabulous as Fashion Week? However, as I began to read, I started to understand why she made the wise decision.
The life of a tall, gorgeous runway model seems glamorous and
heavenly. But for this model, walking in fashion shows was anything but.
Modeling isn't all drinking
Champagne on yachts and being told you're fabulous. Runway modeling
especially can be brutal. Ahead, one anonymous model shares the story of
why she left the runways.
“I did Fashion Week from the ages of 18 to 21, with big
dreams of landing a campaign. But because it’s all about booking the
right shows, when you don’t, all you do is walk away with fried hair,
clogged pores, blisters and around $200 per show. Eventually, I realized
that catalog and print advertising work was the way to go because the
money is so good and the job isn't stressful. Until I had that epiphany,
show after show, I’d have barely enough money to pay my rent, which was
$1500 a month, and a book's worth of backstage horror stories to tell
my mother.
Everyone thinks fashion week is crazy, but it’s really the
two weeks beforehand for models that is really insane. You’re expected
to go all over the city to fittings and castings. There’s no time to eat
lunch. And you’re so stressed out that you’re not even hungry anyway.
Yet, a designer will see an outfit on you once, wait until you leave the
casting, and then call your agent and ask why you’ve gained weight. And
all you can think is, Seriously?! Once, while staring at my
breasts, a designer said: “Have your boobs gotten bigger?” I said, “Yes,
I just started taking a new birth control pill.” This designer then
told my agent that I had to switch pills or else I wouldn’t be hired.
Luckily I never had any other weight issues, but some of my friends did
and they lost out on a lot of work.
The hardest part of fashion week for me though was when I
sat in the hair and makeup chair. My skin is sensitive and I’d breakout
almost immediately after they’d apply foundation. It actually got so bad
that I started carrying around my Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation to
each show, asking the makeup artists to use that instead, or else my
face would start to burn and I’d get an inflamed rash all over. And —
ready for this? — makeup artists set the makeup with hairspray (yes,
they spray hairspray in your face), which didn't help matters! So
basically, my skin never had a chance to calm down because the next day,
the layers-of-foundation plus hairspray would go on. And on. And on.
Oh, and you think cotton pads are soft, right? They’re
not. During the day it's a lot of putting on — and wiping off — makeup
with cotton pads. And there's nothing gentle about that process,
especially when you get your makeup changed about five plus times a day.
A Q-tip ends up feeling like a tiny knife after it’s used to straighten
eye liner and get rid of smudges for the one hundredth time (a lot of
the shows call for a smoky eye). Needless to say, my skin—and my
eyes—looked tired, irritated, and always felt super dry after each day
of shows, so I'd have to sleep wearing a mask of Cetaphil Lotion every
night.
Hair was another problem. I have super fine, thin hair
that is also bleached. When I was going to the shows, I wouldn't know
the hairstylist and he or she didn’t care how my hair looked after eight
days of torture. They’d put gel in it and then brush it out, mess it up
and have to redo the whole thing all over again, hairspray the shit out
of it, pull on it every which way, until it was approved by the top
hairstylist on the show. I'd look down and see all of my hair on the
floor—in clumps.
While, in all fairness, some tried to be gentle, the truth
is, most were more concerned with getting the job done. I felt like
they didn’t think about how a human was attached to the hair and that I
was a mannequin head. And with all of the styles, tangles, and tight
braids that I endured, I'd have to go home and throw a ton of
conditioner in my hair every night. Then after each season, I'd get a
few inches cut off, since it was so matted and damaged.
I also have a bad habit of biting my nails, so the
manicurists often put on acrylic tips, which would make my nails thin
and weak. And if I didn’t have blisters from running around to the
castings, I’d get them from wearing shoes that didn’t fit. Designers
only order a certain number of each size shoe and whoever gets to the
casting first, gets the right shoe size. The others just have to make
the pairs that are left fit.
Even though I have a lot of nightmare stories about
Fashion Week, it's still a cool thing to be able to tell people that
you've done. And the fact that you walked in a Prada or Oscar de la
Renta show gives you good bragging rights when you're pitching yourself
to a potential employer. But there comes a point when you realize that
some clients don't care if you've walked in Fashion Week, and those
clients are easier to work with. So once I realized that, I decided to
take a walk from the runway and focus more on making money doing
modeling jobs that don't have any downsides.
- Anonymous
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