The Mercedes Benz Shows are what really make up Mexico's Fashion Week. Getting a lot of those shows is important, even slightly career defining...for runway at least. Mercedes is huge because its series of shows are exhibited all around the world, in the major fashion centers, like Milan and Paris and New York. As a model, you would work with designers and stylists from these industry hubs. You can establish yourself, both in Mexico and internationally.
I came slightly later than the big casting for Mercedes, but the agency convinced the women on the Mercedes board that they should check me out anyways. It was a late casting, 7:00pm, but very nearby. When I got there, 10 minutes early, I met one of the ladies out front, who rang the doorbell to the Head of board's house.
The Head of Mercedes had a very small, exuberant dog, PhiPhi, whose tail was just a furry mound on her rump. When she wagged it, her whole bottom half shook, including her forelegs. As PhiPhi wagged her tail constantly, the result was comical: she could never really walk straight and was always in the midst of a balancing act. When someone was at the door, she never really achieved the status of “guard dog”, but nevertheless endeavored in earnest. Her bark and mien attempted ferocity, but her tail wagged all the same. In this MO, she met me at the door. There was a grille separating us, but in her excitement she attempted to squeeze through, though only her puffy face fit. While the head remained immobile, the rest of the body behind the bars was at the mercy of her tail, which was wriggling madly. When the maid opened the door, PhiPhi's head was still wedged behind the bars. For a moment she slid with the door, paws scrabbling. Then with a Yelp!, she freed herself and scooted away from the offending grille.
After that, we were the best of friends. When I sat to wait on a horsehair chair of zebra print, she proceeded to lick my feet and my hands. I'm sure, if she were taller, she would have attempted to climb into my lap and lick my face, but as it was, the little thing could barely paw my knees. Which she did, tail bouncing from side to side energetically.
The little dog put me at ease. People in charge of castings tend to be very imposing, whether it's from my preconception, or because they act purposefully aloof. I have a feeling it is a mezcla of both; (mezcla means mix, it's my word of the day!) so when I met with women in charge of the Mercedes casting, I was very nervous. They were all business of course, but when the business is the subjective, professional criticism of your body, you tend to feel apprehensive.
With PhiPhi there, it was hard not to laugh a little, and laughing in the face of your prospective physical evaluation is very comforting.
Another girl arrived: Kara, from Germany. She knew the women personally, they greeted her warmly with a Mi Amore! I found out later the Ladies called everyone that, but actually at the time the sentiment was nice.
We waited a spell. The flat was lovely, two stories; white stairs wound up above our heads and there was a glass atrium on the second floor. You could see the sky turn dusky. Even with PhiPhi, la pocquenio perra, yapping and causing a general ruckus...licking Kara's legs and pouncing at both of our knees, the anticipation got to me. The flat, with its beige and blood orange accents, its oak paneling and Japanese ascetics began to unnerve, I think both of us, with the waiting. The atrium began to have me think of an eye. I could hear the Ladies chatting about us in an undertone while I was laughing with PhiPhi and Kara. While I have a difficult time communicating in Spanish I have accumulated a decent enough vocabulary to understand what people are talking about, in general. I am pretty sure they liked my look and that they were imagining how it'd go with the different runways that create Mercedes. That made me feel relieved. But they hadn't seen my walk yet: so my relief was short-lived.
No comments:
Post a Comment