So...You Said Taiwan?

To be honest, when I first found out that I would be traveling for work as a model, I envisioned Paris, Milan, and New York. I never really had given any thought to going to Asia to work in fashion...silly me. When my agency approached me with the contract to go to Taipei, Taiwan for two months I was a) giddy to be getting the heck out of Dodge and traveling once again, and b) confused. Taiwan? For modeling? Oh, okay.....Luckily, I trusted my agency wholeheartedly. My family and a few friends on the other hand were a little less sure of what my work there would include. "What type of modeling? You mean 'hostessing' or 'dancing'".....this usually followed by an evil snicker or a melodramatic, eye popping stare courtesy of my mom.

Nope....I was going to Taiwan to be a good ol' little fashion model. For clothes, not without. And I have to admit, that I am ever grateful & glad that this was my first trip abroad and my debut into the Industry. It taught me how to be a model like no other market possibly could have in such a short amount of time. I arrived completely unprepared, but confident and excited. I have always been attracted to Asian culture and now I would get to experience it first hand, all expenses paid. Not a bad gig.

My first International comp card!



My agency in Taipei was FMI (Face Models International). One of only two agencies not rumored to be run by the Chinese Mafia (phew!) and set up to live in the First Hotel with eight other girls, all of which were Canadian and complete sweethearts, as all Canadians seem to be. The bookers and managers took us all under their wings, and without hesitation whisked us off, jet lag and all, to do a slew of castings the very next day after we had arrived. And castings in Taiwan are unlike castings anywhere else on this planet....as are the bookings. But that comes later.

First of all, you are taken by a manager to all of your castings. And in any normal, given day, you go see anywhere from 8 to 20 clients. No joke, I said 20 clients. We'd get crammed like underfed sardines into cabs and led through the labyrinthine madness that is Taipei by our manager. He or she would then translate for us when we got to a fashion house as the designers, art directors, photographers, et. al. would leaf through our books (often times literally just turning pages & not looking at the pictures at all) and have us change into 5 or 6 outfits to see how they'd "fit" us. Once in an outfit, we wouldn't just do a little strut, twirl, and stand.....we were asked to do a series of poses. Yes....a freakin SERIES. And depending on the outfit or the designer's mood we would be directed as to what type of poses to do. "High Fashion Pose!", "Lady Pose!", "Funky Pose!", "Cutey Pose!", "Sporty Pose!". Needless to say, by the end of my two months there, I was a posing pro. I had my poses down like choreography....this came in handy when I later went off to larger markets like Tokyo, Milan and Miami. Taipei was the best model posing training ground a girl could ever ask for.

Our home away from home:



And I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised at the clothes that I did get to model in Taiwan. Granted, jobs could range from the extremely editorial to the cheestastically embarassing, but for the most part, the designs were original, beautiful and the attention to detail impeccable. Taiwan has all of the major fashion magazines that we do in the States or in Europe as well as a myriad of their own.....and the editorials are always up to par to what you would find in Italian Vogue or W. I got to do editorials for Harper's Bazaar, and a cover for Taiwan Elle and the tearsheets I got out of these jobs landed me great representation and bookings in Europe. Like I said, Taiwan was excellent training ground for a newbie like I was. Then again, I also landed the cover of "More Beautiful", and did an Avon ad where they aged me 50 years...gray haired wig and all. Some jobs just never made it into my portfolio!

The catalogs I worked for were more than I can remember, seeing as most of the work in Taipei is catalog (Taiwan is one of the world's leading textile markets....no wonder there are so many fashion houses there, eh?!). But even then, these weren't ever run of the mill catalogs like we are all prone to getting in our mailboxes here stateside, complete with muu muu's and the proverbial mom jeans. Nope, in Taiwan every catalog was a major production with up to 200 cuts per model, the most breathtaking & creative hair & make-up I have ever encountered and art direction to make the editors at Vogue in NY weep. These catalogs were stunning. You could be wearing a burlap coverall and still end up looking like a million bucks. Leave it to the Taiwanese. And never fear....I'll be posting some of my tearsheets from Taipei in the next few days.....some good and some that turned me into a golf playing 12 year old. I just have to get this damned scanner going again......

My roommate, Laura, and I waiting outside a casting:




And if you think that the fact that we were going on castings 10 hours a day and working up to 18 hours on other days (double bookings were pretty common) and didn't have time to have fun and/or get into trouble...whichever you wanna call it, then I'd have to say you are WRONG! LOL! Oh so very, very wrong. But you'll have to keep checking in for some of those stories & pictures.....