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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2014 20:00:23 GMT
It was totally by accident that I happened across the Elite model agency casting day in a shopping mall in the centre of Paris this morning. I was there to see two movies that came out today at the multiplex and saw them setting up the stuff for the event at 8:30 and when I came out of the 2nd movie at 14:00, there was one of the hugest queues that I have ever seen. And since it was still more or less the beginning of the afternoon, it was still growing as dozens and dozens of girls were still flocking in as they gripped their application forms. Since it was a school day, most of the younger girls had ditched their afternoon classes for a chance at celebrity and a briefly incredible lifestyle. If these girls had heard the mean comments of other girls the same age who were watching them, I'm sure that a lot of them would have rushed home in tears. After watching this for just a few minutes, I sighed and left.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 2, 2014 20:20:34 GMT
Oh, doesn't that take one back to the nasty school days. And now the mean girls have portable phones.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2014 20:25:43 GMT
We all know, though, that most successful models are not conventionally "pretty". Specific body type, weight, height, bone structure and various indefinable qualities are necessary to make it. I see a few girls there who might be worth slapping some makeup on and photographing, but the odds of any of them making it are very low, indeed. It just makes me a bit sad for the ones who take it too seriously; the rejection they experience today will haunt a few of them into eating disorders and feelings of inadequacy.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2014 20:42:24 GMT
Just walking alongside the endless queue, I thought it was interesting to see all of the different mindsets. Some of the girls had clearly spent 5+ hours choosing their clothes and doing their makeup. (Most of these were also wearing fuck-me pumps.) Others had gone for the "natural" look: "I look nice and don't need artificial additions." Good for them. And of course the majority were the ones just like in the 'Idol' casting events -- "I'm just going for a laugh and don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being selected." And probably most of the ones selected for further review were in the 3rd category.
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Post by patricklondon on Apr 3, 2014 9:11:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2014 14:07:07 GMT
The variety is great, but they have still been transformed into an unnatural vision, which is something that fashion photography always does, even when they try to make things look natural.
Thinking about yesterday's spectacle again, I find the Elite agency to be extremely clever. They probably paid little or nothing for the venue, because what shopping mall does not want to be invaded by countless numbers of young fashion-crazed women? And doing the tests in public was an excellent way to see how these girls deal with pressure, so that probably helps with the weeding process as well. And putting them all together for a whole afternoon when they could stare at each other also advised the women how tough the competition was in this business, and a lot of them probably dropped out of the queue long before they reached the front.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 3, 2014 18:43:18 GMT
Yes, I've seen "castings" like that too, and it is an astute business move on many levels.
Of course the ad is a fantasy; I'm dreaming far more of being in the countryside in the SUMMER and eating fresh, local berries with clotted cream and tea from a silver pot than of owning any of those garments.
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Post by htmb on Apr 3, 2014 20:21:16 GMT
That photo looks really unnatural and a bit scary to me.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2014 18:01:16 GMT
I saw in Le Monde that "Elite" did the same thing at the huge Euralille mall in Lille last week.
Une fille s'est assise par terre, d'autres l'entourent, formant un petit îlot au milieu des gens qui ont envahi, par centaines, le centre commercial Euralille, une file d'attente phénoménale qui démarre de l'esplanade en béton à l'extérieur, immobilise les escaliers mécaniques et bloque tout le premier étage.
The agency says it likes Lille. "We come here to get raw material." Last year they chose 8 girls for further testing out of 377, and they found a top model in Lille in.... 2006.
It doesn't hurt to dream. Or maybe it does.
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