Life of a Fashion Show model: Part One
Written by Hana Hyman
Photos by Hana Hyman
This year, District is following a fashion senior and fashion show model from midterms to finals as they experience the chagrin and euphoria of completing a senior fashion collection. Each week, we will bring you an update on each of the participants’ progress, giving you an exclusive, inside look into the lives of fashion seniors and their models.
Tori Dubray is a returning model for the SCAD Fashion Show this year. Dubray is a fourth-year advertising major from Nashua, New Hampshire. This time around, Dubray “was cajoled into doing it” by a senior fashion design student and mutual friend, though Dubray did not end up in the designer’s model group. “She was really disappointed,” Dubray said ruefully.
Advertising major Tori Dubray.
Dubray makes for an easy choice as a model due in part to her experience as a ballerina. Before coming to SCAD, Dubray had the opportunity to dance professionally in Boston. At age ten, she was dancing every day. “Whenever I wasn’t in school, I was dancing. I was really serious about it,” Dubray said. Now, however, Dubray is seeking post-graduation employment at a variety of advertising agencies around the globe. “There’s not one particular agency I have my heart set on. More like places. I want to live in a lot of different places. And, if I go to a big agency that has offices in a lot of different cities, then I can move a lot and I really want to move around.” Dubray is fond of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and DDB Worldwide for their international reaches.
Dubray wants to live in as many different places as she can in her lifetime and “learn about different cultures and understand more about the world around me so I can make fantastic work in advertising that really hits people in an emotional, real place. The worst advertisements are the ones that feel fake and hokey. The way to make really good advertisements is to really be authentic, and the way to be authentic is to live it and feel it and do it yourself.”
Despite her excellent balance skills honed during her time as a ballerina, Dubray still fears falling on the runway: “Sometimes the shoes are really scary.” Luckily, as a former performer, Dubray doesn’t suffer from stage fright.
Who is Tori Dubray in one sentence? “I’m a curious and driven student of the world.”
This past Friday, Dubray arrived to the first senior fashion critique of the quarter. The first outfit she was dressed in was an all leather coat that “didn’t breathe at all.” Quickly, Dubray became overheated, “but I couldn’t take the jacket off because I would just be in my skivvies, so I went into the office, took off the coat, and sat there in my underwear for five minutes just to let myself cool down.” Another designer “didn’t give [Dubray] enough room in the bottom of the skirt,” causing her to need to walk in geisha-like steps as she demonstrated the garment.
It wasn’t all bad, though. “They feed us! That’s nice,” remarked Dubray with a chuckle. After Dubray wore and was photographed in each garment she was assigned to, she was allowed to leave. The whole process took three hours of being corralled to and from a waiting room, in and out of clothing, and walking back and forth in the critique room. Dubray will repeat this process once more this coming Friday during the second and last critique.
After Friday, all of the designers’ garments are taken for the jury show on May 10. Every designer has his or her work judged in this show, and then only a selection makes it into the actual fashion show. Of those collections chosen, the judges pick outfits suitable for the show. Some designers may end up showing their entire collection, others only one outfit. Between the two shows, models will be cut, too. It’s a rather persnickety process, but one Dubray is game to participate in.
Stay posted for another update on Dubray next Wednesday.
Read this week’s update on fashion senior Taylor Krankowski.
Editor’s note: Dubray’s major was corrected in the photo caption to advertising.
Changed “two” to “a” regarding fashion designers and fashion show models in the first paragraph.
