On a chilly and rainy Saturday morning outside the W Hotel on North Lake Shore Drive, hundreds of aspiring models -- lithe and leggy, blond and buxom, Asian, black, Hispanic and white -- stood shivering in a line that began at the W's entrance and snaked its way far down Erie.
The first-ever Victoria's Secret search model had come to Chicago, its last stop on a four-city open casting call tour, and these women were determined to be the next Giselle Bundchen or Heidi Klum or Tyra Banks, each of whom got her start strutting down runways in lingerie as a Victoria's Secret Angel.
Statuesque Chicagoan Jade Newton, 25, longed to be in their company.
"I've always loved the Victoria's Secret fashion show," said Newton from beneath her red umbrella. "I was always telling my mom, 'One day I'm gonna be on that runway. I don't care if I fall on the runway, I'm going to be on the runway.' And then I got an e-mail that they were having the search model , so I just made plans to be here this morning. I didn't know it was going to be this crazy. But you never know what kind of doors it could open. And even if they don't pick me, at least I went out for it."
On Nov. 4, 10 lucky ladies from the casting call will be singled out and sent to a boot camp in New York, where Angels will school them in media, runway, red carpet and photo shoot skills. Their adventures will be captured on camera for Webisodes, and the public will vote on which actresses appears on CBS Dec. 1 during the Victoria's Secret fashion show.About 9:20 a.m., the Great Model Migration began. Waves of women were guided through the lobby and into nearby Workroom 1, where gentle but extremely discerning judges John Pfeiffer (Victoria's Secret casting director) and Kannon Rajah (his assistant) stood behind a white tape line and eyeballed the contestants solely based on looks and charisma. Based on what he'd seen in Round One, Rajah quietly admitted afterward that maybe one had the right stuff to compete in a final showdown.
Few words were uttered as the aspirants sauntered past, doing their best to look oh-so-sexy in high heels, cleavage-baring dresses and barely there miniskirts while schlepping coats, bags and umbrellas. A handful were given pink wristbands and ushered off to one side. They'd made the first cut."I think initially you're looking at body proportion, height [minimum requirement was 5-foot-8] -- really basic things," Pfeiffer said. "We're not even talking to them at this point to get a sense if they have personality or what they can bring in addition to beauty and fashion."
College student Monica Klymer, 18, of Fort Collins, Colo was only the second one to snag a wristband. She'd received an e-mail about the contest and immediately booked a flight.
"This is a huge opportunity," Klymer said. "You have nothing to lose."
Shannon Prior, 19, of Columbus, Ohio, waited in line almost three hours before making her big entrance. She failed to make the grade, and was promptly shuffled through a side door -- literally kicked out into the cold -- by a no-nonsense security guard who didn't abide loitering. She was disappointed, but "you try your best."
Most of the ladies who showed up eager to showcase themselves followed Prior's lead.
Nearly 30, however, got to hang tight for Round Two -- in which they donned teeny-weeny bikinis and once again flaunted their assets before Pfeiffer and Rajah in a small upstairs space. "Just be open with us," Pfeiffer told them. "Give us your best walk, give us your best smile and let your personalities shine through, all right? Have fun, guys." Simon Cowell, he ain't.In addition to an array of multicolored and bejeweled swim wear suits, all wore high heels and thigh-length light blue, leopard-print or pink silk robes. Some had tattoos. At least one sported a navel piercing. Seated in long rows of chairs, they were called one by one to the judges' table for a more intimate introduction and examination.
"It's amazing, when you see actresses in their swim wear, how few women really have perfect proportions," said Monica Mitro, executive vice president of public relations for Victoria's Secret and the executive producer of the fashion show. "When they're in their underwear and they're on the runway and they're seen by literally millions of people, they have to have a perfect body. Because they don't know what they're going to end up wearing, but everything will be seen. With photographs you can retouch and fix things, and when it's live in person they have to be in really great shape."
After Round Two, as her fellow contestants headed off to lunch, 26-year-old April Rose of Chicago -- a actrehospital crisis counselor and an online interviewer for Maxim magazine (she was the publication's Hometown Hotties national winner for 2008) -- talked about the experience.
"It's fun. It's not like I'm digging ditches and having to do manual labor. You're just walking down the aisle. It's a little nerve-racking because you're wearing a bikini and the air conditioning's blasting and you've got a bunch of beauty girls looking at you, but other than that it's been fun, it's been very easy so far."
Her ultimate goal, she joked, was to "make it to the top 10 and then give every other a girl a black eye and then make it to the final [round]." In the end, though, only one Chicago area contestant -- Peotone resident Ashley Novak, 20 -- wound up on the list of nine finalists. Come Nov. 4, she could be on her way to New York and, ultimately, international renown.
source : suntimes.com
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