By Michele Smith
Facebook – MicheleSmithMarketing
From an outsider looking in and especially if you are sitting in the front row of any of the major shows at New York Fashion week, most are purely focused on the glitz and glamour of any show. Champagne, pre parties and after parties are prominent and models are simply their accessory to view a designer’s new line. What really goes on behind the scenes? Here is one account of a former model (anonymous) who specifically shared her nightmare story and put a hold on her runway career to focus on print modeling.
The scoop is as follows: New York Fall Fashion Week is more glamorous to the attendees according to this one model, who was too embarrassed to even call her mom to give her the horrible details. Essentially, this is specifically why this beautiful model quit the fall fashion week. What happened exactly? This is not a situation what you would expect … whatsoever.
First of all, many models walking the runway during fashion week are between the ages of 18 – 21 in hopes of landing a major contract or future modeling jobs. This makes sense, right? Well, here is a detailed inside scoop from our model who indisputably left the runway for print publications. The bottom line is that it is not all about champagne. Also on a side note, most models need to pay rent and $200 a show for an all-day event does not remotely add up to that. It is all about booking the right show, and if not you have the aforementioned payment, blisters, fried hair and clog pores to stay the least. In addition, this does not even compare to the backstage stories you do not want tell mom about.
The real hell of fashion week (according to our inside model source) is what goes down the two weeks prior to fashion week. Any model should forget about eating, because they are expected to be all over one city for all of the fittings. Also, expect a call from your agent if you gained the slightest bit of weight or you switched birth control pills and your boobs got bigger. Yes, industry professionals have specifically asked models to stop taking the pill when their breast size increased. If there are any weight issues, you will lose work.
The makeup chair is especially hard if you have skin issues. Most fashion show attendees do not know that most model’s makeup is actually set with hair spray. This is not good for anyone with sensitive skin and our particular subject would have to bring a specialized lotion with her at all times to not walk down the runway with a rash. The general public also thinks that cotton pads are key for cleaning comfort, but at the end of the day a Q-tip feels like a tiny knife after a show for a model. This means going home with tired eyes and skin that is even more irritable. The last of the major problems is that our beautiful model has thin, fine, bleached hair. After 8 days, of random stylists who do not care applying gel, comb-outs and anything else under the sun, chunks of her hair on the floor were clearly the last straw for her. The industry is certainly less glamorous when actually working a show.
