How This Victoria’s Secret Rookie Went From the Mall to the Catwalk
Few fairy tales are set in Columbus, Ohio, but that’s where Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show rookie Megan Puleri’s begins. On one fateful day in the city’s mall, Puleri’s parents ran into Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands and one of the deciding voices in casting models for the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Having met him decades earlier at a tennis tournament, they thought they’d try their hand soliciting him for advice for their daughter who dreamed of modeling for the brand.
“I was shopping for a shirt—literally—and this very sweet lady came up to me,” Razek recalls with a laugh. “I try to avoid that sort of thing entirely because I’m approached about it by email, text, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter every day of my life. It’s constant. Selecting models and representing models is an agency’s job and I am not in any way, ever, trying to compete with them, and frankly, I try not to even have an opinion until they’ve vetted them, so honestly I just try to leave it alone.”
So Razek said what he always says to aspiring models—“that she should finish school and go on to college, that no one makes it in the modeling industry, and that it is a very tough field to be in”—but as you might have guessed, the story doesn’t end there. “She walks over and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe you could [be a model].’ I left it at that because there’s a lot of things that are indefinable about successful models. There’s a lot of tall thin pretty girls, there’s a lot of beautiful women in the business, there’s a lot of women aspiring to be in the business, but when I met her I said, ‘You’ve got a chance.’ ”
Seventeen months passed before Puleri’s parents reached back out to Razek about a meeting, giving their daughter more time to build up her experience. The Puleris arrived in Razek’s office in Ohio, and left with recommendations for agencies in New York City. “I bend over backwards to be ruthlessly ethical about this stuff,” Razek explained, noting that while he was going to give them an agency’s contact info, he was in no way going to advocate that Megan be hired or even guarantee a spot working for Victoria’s Secret. Fast-forward a couple months and Megan was signed with IMG. Fast-forward a little more, and she had turned 18 and moved to New York City with her mother.
After what now amounted to several years of anticipation, Puleri finally found herself at the Victoria’s Secret show casting. She attended several callbacks, in which Razek recused himself from giving his opinion, and was ultimately named one of the new models cast in this year’s show. “I was so overwhelmed and elated because this has honestly been everything that I’ve been working for,” Puleri told Vogue.com. “My dream coming into modeling was that one day I might be able to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. . . . Growing up, I would see the girls walking and they just looked so happy and confident. My friends and I would have sleepovers to watch the show, and then we’d dress up and practice runway because it was just so inspiring.”
Since being cast in this year’s show, she’s gotten advice from veteran Angels like Candice Swanepoel—“She told me that the first show is the best show, and just to be confident and relax”—but it seems that soon she’ll be the one doling out advice to runway hopefuls. For his part, Razek admits, “I was really happy that she made it, but I was more happy that she made it on her own.”
. Also Lily D, Joan, and Martha look great! (i'm not a fan of this last one)
I'm surprised Bella wasn't with them
