Wow, these modeling reality shows are popping up with the frequency of hot doctors on Gray’s Anatomy.
Remodeled features Paul Fisher (former manager of supermodels Naomi Campbell and Stephanie Seymour) and his network of 50 agencies in small markets. His goal: to remodel them, one at a time, both the offices themselves and the people who run them and change the way the industry works. He wants the little guys to reap the rewards of developing stars and not let New York agencies snap them up and take all the credit. He starts with the Arquette agency in Minneapolis (big clients = Target and Aveda), where owner Brita has lost 16 models (a booker stole them away; as Paul says, this happens all the time). Paul swoops in, like a swearing Super Nanny, whips Brita and her staff into shape, finds a crop of new faces, and brings back one of the defectors, notably a plus-size model whom Fisher expects can turn the agency around.
Woven through the show is another storyline. Of the 14,000 models(!) represented by “The Network,” Fisher and his team select four to go to New York for Fashion Week castings: 17-year-old Meghan from Albuquerque, who looks like the next Adriana Lima to me; 20-year-old Mariana from Mexico, touted as the next Gisele; 16-year-old Bobby from Portland, who’s ditching the football team to pursue catwalking (I’m wondering if his teammates teased him, or do modeling aspirations seem totally normal to a jock in the age of ANTM?); and 21-year-old gap-toothed tattooed Annelise from Sarasota, hoping to capitalize on her Lauren Hutton look. Meghan has never done a modeling job in her life but dreams of buying a compound for her family. I think she just might. Mariana, also from a humble background, hopes to send money back home. I’ve encountered plenty of models with the same noble goal—it’s not all about buying the next it bag.
We don’t know the outcome of the castings yet, except that Annelise got a poor response and was sent home. At her first casting, the client reacted to her walk by saying, “You look like a scared cat.” She complained about how mean he was, but I didn’t think he was mean. He gave her constructive criticism and let her walk again. Normally a model with a mediocre walk would just get a thanks-very-much, next! Annelise cried when she got the news about being shipped home. I never cried about anything related to modeling (well, except male models). I think she needs a new walk and a thicker skin. Annelise, in case you’re reading, my walk sucked too. Hang in there.
Minus the budget to wave a magic wand and turn an agency that looks like a dental office into a flashy dream-makin’ machine, this show scores high on the realism scale, with real modeling industry pros in the cast and models with real potential. The best part, Fisher’s focus on healthy, civic-minded models:
“When one of my models is about to fly to New York to have go-sees with the top tastemakers in the industry—Vogue, Seventeen, Marie Claire, GQ, Ralph Lauren, and Hilfiger—do I tell her to get busy starving herself, working out nonstop, and preparing her walk?” asks Paul Fisher. “No. I tell her to forget the meetings. Go feed the homeless. Go visit your grandmother. Go to your church, or your yoga class, or whatever keeps you centered and grounded. Spend your time thinking how you can serve and help others. Then see how your meetings turn out.”
Remodeled airs on The CW on Tuesdays, 9 PM EST.
Love this!! Very cool!