Wow!!! if you have been following me long enough, you would see how far I have come with my modelling career, as I do post about it quite regularly. Last year I attended African Fashion Week London AFWL as a blogger which I absolutely loved, so it was a complete turnaround for me having to work as a model this year.
It makes me very happy and inspired to see how much passion and talent goes into producing any Fashion show of great magnitude, from the castings to meeting the production team and Fashion designers.
Designers from all over Africa and Brazil got to showcase at AFWL, so did models who took to the runway too. At times I felt I was in a French country and other times I felt I was in a Portuguese speaking country because of so much ethnic diversity in one room.
From my experience after a few seasons, here are my top tips for preparing for Fashion week.
- Maintain a strong face with more defined facial features by eating less salt and drinking more water at least 3 days prior to hitting the runway. Staying hydrated reduces puffiness around the eyes, cheekbones and neck.
- A very green diet, full of fibre is a great for getting rid of bloat. Putting myself on a strict high fibre diet before fashion week means that my abdominal muscle definition is more visible – Eat your way to great Abs.
- Do not try any new skin care products at-least a week before your shows. Your skin care routine should be with products you trust and swear by.
- Practice your walk in front of other models who you admire, this way they are able to give you constructive criticism and help you.
- Take a book or some sort of self entertainment to a casting or fittings with you, as there could be a lot of waiting around. Using this time productively would be great for you.
- Be a source of great energy, simply by just giving out good vibes and being yourself. Backstage at fashion shows could be very stressful, so do not take things personal if any daggers are being thrown at you.
- I know there are parties all around town during any fashion week, but as a working model, you need to know when to call it a night. I have seen models deal with hangovers backstage, it isn’t professional and could ruin your promising career before it has even started especially if you are a new to the industry.
- Read your model brief from the designer, for guys if the designer requests that you bring a certain item – black socks, shoes etc, do so, or let them know well in advance. It makes you as a model more professional and easy to work with.
- It gets very warm and sweaty backstage, how embarrassing would it be to be offered some deodorant. For this reason, always take with you some anti perspirant or deodorant. You don’t want to be that guy or girl known for bad hygiene.
If you follow me on instagram I did promise I would share with you all the photos from the designers I walked for. so here they are below.
You can watch my VLOG to see all the behind the scenes action from my experience at AFWL on my IGTV
Whats your favourite look from all of this, Mine is definitely look 1.
Do you have any model industry questions you would like me to answer, please leave a comment and I will be answering right away.
Photo Credit: @SDR Photo
www.ramp.sdr.co.za
