One Model's Story

[model_mom]

sidenote...
The story behind the "Ralph Casting"
Ali had castings all day,it was raining and right at the last minute she had to go see Douglas Hannant for a fitting. She was late for the Ralph casting. We had laid out an outfit for Ali to wear for the casting and wanted to redo her hair because of the rain, but we had two choices... be late for the Ralph casting and miss it all together or go in the jeans, showboots and sleeveless black sweater that she had on. She went with what she had on. We found out later that Jennifer Starr had called Charloltte ranting about what Ali had on. She told her that Ali looked 'tacky" at her casting and that Ali had worn a muscle shirt on with wet jeans....the bottom line was that she had been drpped for the "looks" job and the show.

 

[model_mom]

I can't begin to tell you how many times we ask any number of people including Charlotte to help us pick out some clothes for Ali to wear to casting. In fact Ali's first agent at Ford had dumped the contents of Ali's suitcase out in front of everyone to see to make a point that Ali didn't have any 'style'. I can remember posting on this very forum asking about casting clothes at the time. Charlottes answer was always "It doesn't matter what she has on. She's so beautiful and acts so sweet it won't matter. Well guess what??? IT DOES MATTER! In this case it mattered a lot.


Sometimes I think what in the world did all these young girls do to deserve this s*** except to be born beautiful.

 

[model_mom]

I'll try to hurry this along because I'm afraid I've overdone it here

Ali booked the Diane Von Furstenberg look and show and had a fitting fo Nicole Miller. We found out later that they were both in the same time slot so she had to cancel the Nicole one.
Feb,7th Saturday
Ali did a show at the Princeton Club for Matthew Earnest. After the show she went to do the 'looks' job for DVF and didn't return till 1:00 am. A make up artist told her tonight the she was on the cover of "Spur' magazine but the chances of seeing it are not good.
Feb 8th

DVF show at her studio very crowded. We sat behind Andre' Leon Tally. My My!

Mackage show right afterwards. Nicki Hilton was in the show and we sat right behind the Hiltons.
Feb 10th
Douglas Hannat show...amazing as usual

Other smaller shows this season...Ricahrd Tyler,Twinkle,Yaya, David Rodriques

We are still trying to get Ali's checks from Next so I go over there every few days to keep trying ,finally Joel goes up to accounting with me and I get Ali's check.

Ali flew home for a Rodeo that weekend then flew back to NY for a job for Anne Kline ($4,000.00).
March 17th shoot for Macy's ($4000.00) and a showroom job for Alexander McQueen.

March 19th- job as an extra in the dance scene for the movie "Hide and Seek"

Ali spent most of the summer of 2004 at home and in Septemeber she went back to school. (Charlotte called to ask her if she would come back for the shows in Sept., but she had decided not to.) Ali graduated with her class in 2005 (a major miracle because she had missed so much school)

There is a thread in 'Supporting cast' that fills you in on the rest of the story.

I always wanted to put all this together for Ali and the fact that so many of you were enthusiastic about reading her story gave me the boost I need to do it. I hope it helps some of you that are thinking about stepping into the modeling profession to see that it's not all the wine and roses that it's pictured to be.....but for those of you that do have what it takes to make it in this business...I salute you.

 

[happytrail]

wow, that was wonderfully put together! i was addicted ! thank you so much for sharing!

ali definitely had the ralph lauren look going for her...it's a shame they didn't use her.

 

[god_save_hedi]

thanks model_mom for all your effort you put into writing the story for us all, i loved reading every bit of it!
hope we'll hear from you from time to time.
thanks again!

 

[nothingless]

Wow, thanks again so much for posting all this, I really really really enjoyed reading it. I wish the very best to you and Ali and the rest of your family!

 

[Paws]

I'll try to hurry this along because I'm afraid I've overdone it here

First things first............YOU HAVE NOT OVERDONE IT HERE!!

If anything, I would want you to write more!!!

Since you have been writing this.....this thread is the first one that I check everytime I come on tfs.

Thank you model_mom

oh and Ali (for letting your mom share all this)!

 

[teriyaki]

That was rivetting (not at all overdone by the way... I could keep reading forever)! Thanks model_mom
Hearing about Ali's first Ford agent makes me wonder how models put up with bullying agents. Those models are way tougher cookies than I could ever be.

 

[maraschin0]

Thank you model__mom
The story was so enlightening, and Ali is amazing to have made it through all of that! I can imagine her being stressed out all the time and homesick, and then have people yell at her for saying she was wearing the "wrong clothes" for a casting You are also a great mother and very patient and supporting throughout the while story! It's nice you and Ali have gone on a few adventures, truly a life-changing experience!

 

[LOVEITALL]

Love the way you've put this together Model Mom. You've detailed it all very well in a way that girls who are interested in modeling must know. Getting a casting to a big show is a hurdle in itself, then being called back for a second casting gets your hopes up that you'll be booked. Then being put on hold or option for a show or big job.... then nothing. It's hard to not take it personally - "they went with another look" is a great way for a booker to politely say "you didn't get the job".

 

[Sloan]

Awww..mom! This was great and even though I already knew the story, it brought back lots of memories to read it again. I remember both the good times, the not so good, and the horrible! Yes, I would think that this would help anyone who thinks that modeling is all 'wine and roses' see that they must take the good with the bad! There were several times when I looked at Ali and thought, "Is she sick?..She looks so thin!...Why does she have dark circles under her eyes?". She was exhausted!! If Ali was exhausted being a model basically part time for most of her career, I can only think of what a model who moves from her home country to NYC to model full time, most not knowing much english, goes through! Ali was very, very lucky to have my Mom there during the first part of her career. A lot of models do not have that.

Glad you posted the story! It can only help others...

 

[Yellowstar09]

Love this thread. Subscribe to read later.

 

[shirleebee]

Thank you, model_mom.
This has proven to be a fascinating read. All the best to you & Ali.

 

[model_mom]

2nd chances....Chicago Victoria Secret model search.

Ali has two charge cards.....but the one she loves the most is the Victoria Secret one, which is why we were in the store at the local mall. We were getting ready to leave and I saw a poster for the VS model search. They were holding a model search in four major cities in the US to find a new 'angel' to walk in their show in Dec. Ali looked at me and I looked at her and we called her sister Amy up and decided on the spur of the minute to take a 'road trip' to the windy city of Chicago.

We found out the location of the model search and booked a room for the night before the shoot. On the 23rd we drove to Saint Louis,picked up Amy and took off for Chicago.
We arrived at the hotel after a seven hour drive and spent the rest of the evening getting Ali together for the next morning. She tried on all of her swimsuits and the one we liked the best was a plain black one. Unfortunately the strapes on the top were a little stretched and part of the white elastic was showing through...we almost decided against it but after Ali tried all the other ones on again, we knew it had to be the black one....so I go downstairs and ask the front desk clerk for a black permanant marker go back to the 22nd floor and proceed to cover up the places on the swimsuit....I know....you are peobably saying,"How tacky!"....but it worked.

Next step was her hair...the week before she had walked four shows for Saint Louis fashion week and at one of them thehairdresser had teased her hair into a hugh 'afro' beehive'. It took her two days to get it combed out but had left her hair a mess. We had valet parked our car so we walked 6 blocks in the rain to pick up a hair treatment for her hair.....we get back to the hotel and Amy "her stylist" put this dynamite outfit together for her to wear to the casting.

We get our PJs on and went to bed around 10:30.....I am almost asleep and Ali says, "Mom, I have navy blue polish on my toes." I'm like..."No you don't"....but she does!
I get dressed go downstairs and find the W gift and sundries shop to get some polish remover...and for some reason the girl will only give me two packets for $4.00 and I head back upstairs.

 

[model_mom]

Well...that took the polish off of two of her toes....so back down 22 floors to the gift shop and I make the girl sell me the whole box of remover. Ali managed to get the polish off and we went to sleep an hour later.

I set my alarm for 4:30 get dressed and go down to the lobby and there is about 15 girls sitting around waiting for the casting to begin at 9:00 am.....back upstairs wake the girls up and tell them to get it together because they are already lining up. Ali makes it downstairs at 6:00 am and they are lining the girls up outside. Thirty four degrees with the wind blowing off of Lake Michigan. Ali's dressed in jeans,a black V neck sweater with a vest and a cute scarf of Amys....but some of the girls have on hot pants,short skirts and little black dresses...not a good scene. By this time the line has wound around the block and it's starting to mist rain. You can see some of the casting people walking up and down the line and checking out the models and a local TV station is interviewing some of the girls. Everyone is shivering and dancing around to stay warm.

 

[model_mom]

Amy and I are flagged down by hotel security and told if we don't have a hotel key that we have to wait outside....I showed him our key and we found a place out of the way where we could view the competition. Julianna (?) from the "E" channel showed up and was the host of the search. They finally sent the first group of girls in around 9:30. Thirty of the girls came in at a time...went up in the elevators to a room,walked on a line across the room and right out the door...except for the ones who were given a pink paper wristband. Forty of them out of about 800 or so. Ali text us to let us know she had a bracelet. The girls that were left were given VS robes and told to get ready to walk in their swimsuits for the first group of judges. After this round they called your number and the girls was narrowed down to twenty contestants.

 

[model_mom]

Then it was time to face the "Decision Makers"....Ali said they were asking some of the girls what they thought the could 'bring' to the VS runway....but they were asking some of the girls what their passion was and that was the question they ask Ali. On the way up to Chicago we had said, "If they ask Ali any thing about her horses,she's got it made."...and the rest you can guess. After this part of the interview, the gentleman who was in charge of the judges told her she had a 'suprisingly amazing walk' and he ask her if she had ever rode a mechanical bull, (my guess is that he had seen one somewhere) and she told him she had. He ask her to walk again and told her when she got to the end of the runway to give him a big "Yee Haw"....then he ask her to do it again and had his crew film it.

Then the waiting began....we didn't hear from her for 3 hours....when the phone rang again she told us that she had been picked as one of the 8 finalists from the Chicago search. They gave each of them a load of paper work to fill out and were told if they were being considered they would recieve a phone call asking for the papers to be faxed to them....Ali recieved her phone call on the following Monday and we sent the paperwork in. On Weds morning she recieved this text: Thank you for entering the Chicago VS Model Search.....if you recieve a phone call sometime today,you are one of our finalist and will be flown to NY on Thurs... if you don't then you are out of the search. You are all superstars...good luck.

 

[turnofflights]

did she get a call yet?!

 

[sethii]

Out of 800 girls she got to the final 8 - not bad!!!

 

[model_mom]

Weds night at 6:30 the phone rings.....