Heart bumping in your chest, heels carving into the skin of your feet, standing in a dark room covered in sweat as you hear superstars, fashion icons, and journalists on the other side of a thin wall. Slowly the sound of people stops and music starts as you hear a loud ‘GO’. The dream of every girl, right? I experienced Fashion Week first hand, and I can tell you: it’s not as glamorous as it seems.
How often can one hear ‘no’?
Before you ever set foot on a catwalk, you have to go through castings. Those are the most exhausting days you will live through. Endlessly walking through Paris or Milan with a heavy bag and no one to help you. Usually, you’ll have up to 12 castings in a day.
Twelve times
Twelve times of entering the metro, coming up on the other side of town and letting Google Maps guide you to a sketchy old building. Twelve times of putting your heels on and taking them off again. Twelve times of leaving all your belongs, taking only a card with your face on it and a hair tie to a casting table that might not even look at you. Twelve times of at most a ‘no’ and at least a silence, or worse, laughing as you walk by. Before you know it, you’re outside again.
Callback
If the casting director does look at you, you might get a callback. But don’t hold your breath, even if you do, you never know if it leads to a show. Sixteen hours of labour resulting in a debt without paycheck.
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