Emily Moore’s take:
Pasties, fishnets and black patent leather heels. I already knew I was venturing into an unfamiliar realm: the world of modeling.
About a month ago, when a friend brought up the idea, I jumped at the opportunity. Being on “”America’s Next Top Model”” had always been a fantasy of mine, and what better way could I replicate the experience than modeling in an actual runway show?
My hair was cut and colored for free. I decided to be adventurous with my color and let Jacqueline Scordato of J. Scordato Hair color it dark auburn. She also assigned me to my segment, described as “”Zanex coma””, and told me I would be walking to a mix of Lady Gaga and Marilyn Manson. I was intrigued and super excited.
Then, I tried on my dress — a red halter A-line old prom dress, someone’s history in an old dress which Scordato and her team were going to customize for me for the runway show. They were going to make it backless, which made me nervous, but she had faith that I could rock it.
Next came the rehearsal. It seemed to take forever. Fifteen people standing on the sidewalk, strutting car-blasted music was an interesting sight. Walking up the angled sidewalk wasn’t too fun and proved to be quite difficult, so we went to the road. Our practice attracted neighborhood traffic as well as a small audience. We went through our segment over and over again for about two hours. It proved to be quite the workout.
We all had to be up at 8 a.m. on Sunday to prepare our hair and get ready. Little did we know that we wouldn’t walk until 12 hours later. Hair and bobby pins were flying everywhere and hairspray clouded the room. We kept breaking up into our segments practicing our walk.
It wasn’t until we got to the stage with the lights and blaring bass that I really got into it. The poses, the stomping — everything flowed naturally and was just fun. To my surprise, Scordato was impressed with my “”Zanex-ed”” walk and put me on display in front of the rest of the segment.
While all of this chaos was building, I still didn’t have my hair or makeup done. I was losing patience, and doing both hair and makeup was a tedious process. After I sat there for five hours, they started my makeup. They glued black feathers and lace to my face and complemented them with dark Twiggy-like eyelashes — on one eye. I even had Bette Midler “”Hocus Pocus”” lips — in black.
Finally, it was time to do my hair. They brushed out my bo-peep ringlets and started pinning my hair in place. Before I knew it, they were done. I had a Rihanna inspired up-do, complete with a demented Barbie doll head pinned in the back.
After doing fittings all day for my dress, finally putting it on was a difficult process. I was duct-taped into my dress — it was not coming off any time soon.
At 7:15 p.m. we lined up, all of us overly eager to get our walk on. After more and more waiting, we finally heard our opening carnival music and knew it was our turn. As soon as I hit the stage, I strutted to each stop, hitting each pose with ease. Before I knew it, we were already done.
I was sad that everything was over but happy that I could go back to normal life. It was a neat way to escape an average rainy day and do something unusual. I can’t wait until next year.
Bryan Ponton’s take:
I was thrown into the world of modeling last week when I was asked to model for Jacqueline Scordato of J. Scordato Hair in Sunday’s Möda Provocateur fashion show. I gladly accepted. Not to my surprise, it is hard to find guys who were willing to do what I did.
Möda Provocateur is a show put on by the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation in the UA’s Student Union Memorial Center’s Grand Ballroom. People pay thousands of dollars for tables around the runway to watch salons and designers from around Tucson show their best work and to support of the foundation.
I went with the other J. Scordato models to a rehearsal outside our hairdresser’s home on Saturday, during which we choreographed what we were going to do on the runway.
After seven grueling hours of getting yelled at for not lifting our knees high enough and not walking with enough power, we commenced our hair preparation for the show the following day. I looked forward to the free haircut I would be receiving from a stylist who otherwise costs a pretty penny.
“”I want to take your hair dark”” was the first thing Scordato said to me as I sat down. She dyed my naturally light brown hair almost black. For the next 35 minutes, we went back outside for more runway practice as the dye set. After washing out the dye, my hair looked pretty cool. I have never dyed my hair so radically dark (and I know my mother is going to kill me for doing it) but it definitely looks cooler than my light brown hair did.
As the day finished, Jackie reminded the boys what we were wearing for the show. I initially thought I would be wearing some cool design by a local designer, but, alas, I was incorrect.
“”All you need are black boxer briefs,”” Scordato said. No shoes and no shirt, just black boxer briefs and some duct tape across the mouth.
The day of the show was one of the longest days I have experienced. It started at 8 a.m. at the Student Union Memorial Center. I sat in the model waiting room for seven hours until the make-up artists grabbed me. They hired tattoo artists from a local parlor to draw designs on the models. After they drew on my chest for a little while, I waited for another two hours.
Finally walking the runway was an incredible experience. It was an adrenaline rush to be in front of so many people, bass booming and lights flashing — is definitely something everyone should try to experience once in his or her life. Even though most of my time was spent sitting around, I’m really happy I decided to do it and look forward to the show next year.
