Fashion Show 3 Art

Becoming a Victoria’s secret model is a daunting task. Millions of hopefuls dream about being a model and landing a contract with Victoria’s Secret. Showing up at the office of Victoria’s Secret in your bathing suit with a box of chocolates is not going to work.

Top 10 insider tips to becoming a Victoria’s Secret Model:

1. Get someone to take your picture. As simple as this sounds you will need this snapshot to approach a credible model agency. The agencies that assist with the casting of a Victoria’s Secret Model are going to want to see what you look like on film.

2. Go to the open call at Ford or Elite in New York City. These two agencies are primarily responsible for negotiating the contracts of Victoria’s Secret models. An open call is a time agencies put aside to meet new models. Call them and ask when they have “open calls” or look for that information on their website. When you arrive be sure to look amazing and have the snapshots in hand.

3. If you get rejected, get busy. Approach local modeling agencies where you live with your snapshots. If you get signed prepare to make friends with professional photographers. You will need those images to get the attention of Victoria’s Secret.

4. Register yourself on modeling websites. Use Google to find them. The world needs to know you are out there.

5. Get measured and be realistic. The ideal height of a Victoria’s Secret Model is 5’9″ standing barefoot with body measurements of 34-24-34.

6. Be Skinny. You must go to the gym. Stop eating junk food. If you are not naturally this thin but have the basic body type of a Victoria’s Secret model hire a nutritionist and a trainer.

7. Be on the cover of Vogue before you are 18 years old. Greatly increases your chances.

8. Enter the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Competition. In 2009 Victoria’s Secret had open calls in October in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami to launch the career of an unknown model. There are presently four requirements to be in the competition. Models must be female, between 18 to 30 years of age, from the United States and a minimum of 5’8″ tall (barefoot). The competition is once a year. Google it and look out for it.

9. Be professional. Be on time. Don’t stay up late and party before shoots. Be nice.

10. Get to know Edward Razek. For the last fifteen years Edward Razek has been the man behind the casting of Victoria’s Secret. He is responsible for choosing who walks down the catwalk and who appears in their advertisements. He has been instrumental in launching the careers of Heidi Klum and Daniela Pestova to superstar status.

For secret insider tips on how to become a Victoria’s Secret model or how to become a successful fashion model please read my blog at:

With TV shows like “Top Model” and internationally televised events like the “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” scorching up the rating charts these days, it seems like every young girl’s dream is to become a fashion model. And why not? After all, if you believe the hype then no job is as glamorous as that of an international model.

If you believe the hype then you think those girls in the magazines are living the high cheek-boned high life, globetrotting from one city to the next, dating celebrities, and getting paid tons of money to boot. If you believe the hype then you think it’s a life of glitz and free champagne.

It’s not.

In fact it’s a life of smoke and mirrors. Reality is most models are not rich… they’re more likely to be close to broke and up to their gorgeous eyeballs in debt (mostly to their agencies who pay for industry expenses such as travel and test photographs). They do get to travel a lot, but it’s usually in cattle class, not private jets.

And forget about living in an expensive mansion, most girls sleep in creaky bunk beds in overcrowded “models apartments” (think 2 bedrooms, 10 girls, 5 different languages, and several roommates with dubious concepts of hygiene). Don’t get me wrong, there are a few models who actually live the stereotypical life of glamour; about 1% of the girls out there do make tons of cash trotting around the world. But even they work their ridiculously good-looking butts off.

In general there is a shocking divide between the images conveyed in the magazines and the real life of models. The average fashion model living in New York City makes little money, spends her days being scrutinized and rejected by people significantly uglier than she, being ordered around by uneducated, cold-blooded morons who tell them to lose weight that doesn’t exist, and hit on by every photo assistant, banker, and homeless guy in town. After a few hours at the models’ apartment listening to the whines and yelps of her teenage roommates, she is then shuffled off by promoters to some “cool” nightclub, fed gallons of free alcohol, and hit on some more.

After a few months of this she is punted to another bunk bed in a strange, foreign market such as Taiwan or Athens, where she is scrutinized, ordered to lose more weight, and hit on by more foreign assistants, bankers, and homeless guys.
Now I’m not saying that modeling doesn’t have its perks.

And it goes without saying that some girls successfully use the profession as a stepping-stone to acting, college, and other pursuits. But the hard truth is that the world of modeling is an obstacle course of drug use, alcoholism, insecurity, eating disorders, and distorted values that very few girls are able to navigate successfully. Does it really pay to be beautiful?