Life of a Fashion Show model: Part four
Written by Hana Hyman
Photo by Peter Pontone
After a quarter full of fittings, critiques and rehearsals, Tori Dubray finally walked the runway in this year’s fashion show. Models arrived in staggered time slots, giving them the opportunity to have a relaxed breakfast.
Then it was off to hair and makeup. As usual, Dubray was hunky-dory about the whole process: “if they want to put weird stuff on your face or make your hair turn like three shades darker, then that’s their prerogative to do so. You are the frame for their picture.” Don’t worry; Dubray befriended the stylists to learn how to dissolve all of that hair goop once she was home free. Her transformation was less permanent than many of the male models who had to get haircuts and beard trims.
Some mishaps happened with makeup. Dubray was given jet-black brows, which head makeup artist Tracy Alfajora was not at all pleased with. Her brows were so pigmented, the whole look had to be removed and restarted.
Remember that one look Dubray got assigned to last minute that didn’t fit at the stylist meeting? Well, it still didn’t fit the day before the show. Dubray said, “Look, I’m going to tell everybody I can [that] this is too big for me, it’s going to fall off my body on the runway, and it’s going to be embarrassing for everybody. So, you need to fix this!” The next day—the day of the show—the dress was good to go, and its designer was overjoyed with how it fit.
Miss Jay Alexander was present throughout for the rehearsals. At one point, Miss Jay snapped at Dubray, but Dubray took it in stride.
“The timing for the show was really complicated … because of how long the walkway was. There were parts of the runway where you had to be closer to the model in front of you, and others where you had to be further apart. Trying to get everybody to pay attention to that is not as easy as you think it is,” explained Dubray. Last minute changes to timing only made it more challenging. “Miss Jay yelled at me because during the part where we walked through the auditorium, we had to run across the backstage to make it to our places on the stage in time, so that the audience wasn’t bored or staring at a blank stage. Running in high heels really sucks,” laughed Tori. “I wasn’t going fast enough, so Miss Jay said, ‘You keep f***ing it up!’ and I was like, ‘Ah! I’m sorry; no one told me!’ Because they don’t really tell us! It’s funny.
“Miss Jay kept going like this–” Dubray flaped her hands in a frantic “come here” gesture, “–so I walked a lot faster, but he wanted me to run and I didn’t know he wanted me to run,” said Dubray in mock exasperation. “Use your words! Tell me and I’ll do it! But it was kind of funny.”
Dubray then got serious: “You don’t always feel the most human as a model. You’re really just a walking dress form.”
Dubray then cut this remark with a chuckle and added, “Which is not always bad! Sometimes it’s nice. You don’t really have to think about it. It’s easy.”
Things went as they were intended to once Miss Jay clarified the logistics and positioning of entering and standing on the stage.
One model was cut the day before the show due to her pink hair. Originally, the plan was for her to wear a blonde wig, but at the last minute, the stylist decided that wasn’t going to fly and the model was fired. Dubray said that the cut model had no qualms about this, as her hair was made pink for a hair photoshoot where she was paid “really, really well.”
Between the two shows, Dubray participated in an impromptu Instagram photo and video shoot for SCAD, which spotlighted key looks from the show.
Dubray experienced only one major frustration during the show process: the models were not allowed outside, and Dubray is a smoker. The reason for this was “they didn’t want our makeup to melt,” according to Dubray, “but we were super offended.” Styling changes and touchups were made to the hair and makeup between the two shows regardless.
Jenae Roseen’s collection, which largely included latex garments, required models to be coated in baby powder so they could be dressed and appear to move naturally in the garments.
During the after party, Dubray stood on the brick steps for about half an hour, though “it feels longer when you’re wearing heels, especially when they don’t quite fit.” The designer purchased Dubray’s shoes for $11. Many pairs got their soles duct taped before the show to enhance traction along the slippery wood floor.
To cap off the series, District posed some closing questions for Dubray about her experience and thoughts:
As someone who has modeled in two consecutive shows, how do you feel this year differs from last year?
The actual show was much more glamorous. It felt a lot more professional, more New York. The fact that [the models] were on the same level as the audience is a lot more typical of the higher fashion shows. The museum was beautiful with the way they set up all of these great lights, with photographers set up in cool spots all along the path. It was a lot more dynamic, especially for the spectators to be that close to the garments. I liked it better for those reasons, but less for the scheduling issues. I’m sure next year it’ll be a lot smoother.
Do you hope they will continue to host the fashion show in the museum?
I think it would be silly for them not to. I think it was a much more glamorous experience. It felt a lot more like an event, you know? Industry-party glamorous.
Did you feel as though you provided a service to the designers you model for?
Yes, but I don’t really think about it that way. We’re doing a job, but the way that the SCAD fashion show works is that we’re there from the muslins to the final looks. We’re there for so long, and [the designers] have us for so long, you become a lot more invested in them as people. So, it’s not so much ‘I’m doing you a service,’ it’s like, ‘I’m here because you’re my friend and I really want you to do well and I want your looks to look as great as they can and I’m going to help you get there.’ It’s more of a friendship than a model-designer relationship.”
Though Dubray is graduating this quarter, she says she’d model in the show again next year if she could.
Read this week’s update on fashion student Taylor Krankowski.