CASTING CALL FOR INDIA BEACH FASHION WEEK
Every season, hundreds of aspiring models descend upon Mumbai to be ‘discovered’. The days leading up to fashion week auditions are filled with trembling excitement as models scurry across town to attend casting calls that will decide which ones will walk and which ones will watch! Come September 26, hundreds of male and female models will walk through the doors of Toabh, Mumbai to try and get selected during auditions for Gionee India Beach Fashion Week. So, if you have a bikini body with a winning personality, or for boys, lean and fit with an attitude worthy of the catwalk… this could be the chance you’ve been waiting for!
Picture This: 5-foot-forever models filing in and out of a bright space, dressed in beach and resort, waiting for their 30 seconds with casting directors. Once they arrive, they check in, take a seat and change out of flats and into sky-high heels — not a single model showed up in stilettos. So, what are casting directors looking for when they are selecting a few girls and boys out of the hundreds that stop by? “She needs to have a nice body,” a designer told me. “She must also look smart, look interested in what I’m doing and have personality. This “personality” can be gauged by facial expressions and whether it’s a blank or confident stare,” the designer noted. Another one said she must stand out from the sea of models. “Height, symmetry, confident walk, beautiful skin and hair — that’s who should be a fashion week discovery.”
Changing tracks, I asked a model I’ve met at castings, how she prepares: “I do a little stretching when I get up, have a glass of warm water with lemon to clear the system. Then I have a long warm shower, apply serum to keep hair in place, use a good moisturiser, primer and concealer. I don’t like to put on much makeup. Then I just have a full meal and walk out.” On what she wears to castings: “I avoid black because it’s a safe colour and tends to be what everyone wears!! Being a beach-theme fashion week, I’ll pack a swimsuit, shorts, singlet and slim jeans— and heels! You have to show you can walk in high, high heels so I always change from sneakers into heels before walking in!” With the fate of most aspiring models’ careers in limbo, Fashion Week casting calls are a critical chance for new faces to impress— but the competition is daunting. “I want to be the best,” sighs a 18-year-old from Punjab. “But the worst is when you have to wait in line behind a hundred girls and you’re bound to get nervous. I hope I get discovered at Toabh and walk for India Beach Fashion Week!”