Faces West

Some of you have been following my daughters start and progress in modeling and this past weekend was a huge step for her and I have had a request to blog about it, so here you go.


This all started Friday October 29th at 2:30pm. That was the time of our meeting with Charles Stuart International Models downtown Vancouver. We were early and it's by appointment only Charles had not arrived yet. So we decided to pop into the Shoppers Drug Mart on the corner. We looked at the high end make-up and chatted about what she would need if this modeling dream of hers pans out. We killed about 15 minutes and headed back up to the third floor where the office was located, as we approached the door I could hear whistling coming from down the hall, it was Charles and at the door to his office we introduced ourselves.


He showed us into his little office which consists of a reception area with a nice black leather couch and love seat, a little coffee table and a flat screen TV hung on the wall. He paused at the DVD player and turned on the TV. He asked us to have a seat and watch a short presentation, we dutifully sat down. Beyond this little reception area is an office with a large glass window looking out into the reception area and this is were Charles disappeared to with a stack of contact sheets.


We watched to DVD it was basically a compilation of the past Faces West Model and Talent Conference video and a few interviews with Coco Rocha. I have mentioned her on my facebook but for the sake of my blog I'll mention her again. She was discovered by Charles Stuart when she was 14. She was in Irish Dance with Charles' daughter when they were kids and as Coco (not her real name BTW) grew taller and taller Charles noticed and asked her if she was interested in modeling and at first she wasn't, well that changed. She convinced her mom to take her to see Charles and he signed her, she was with his agency for a few years before Elite New York signed her and her career took off, currently she holds the number one spot on the super model list.


Needless to say we finished watching the video and moved from the reception area to Charles' office. I had emailed him my daughter's Polaroids but brought in a head shot for him. These were done by her dad the weekend before and were simple head, profile and body shots printed on plain paper, nothing fancy. Charles asked the usual questions, how tall is she, how old, her shoe size, as I blogged before this is important because it gives you a sense of how tall a young teen is going to be. She's a size ten shoe, well currently size ten and eleven, the left side of her body has grown and the right side needs to catch up. He had her place her hands on the desk and was impressed by the length of her fingers.


After taking some additional measurements we moved on to the topic of Faces West. He asked if we would be interested in attending and of course we said yes but my bigger question was "how much would it cost" I loved his reply, he said, "if you sign with my I will sponsor her and it's free." I like the word free but as you will read later, it's not ever 100% free. I looked at my daughter and asked what she thought. We were scheduled to see another agency later that after noon and I mentioned that to Charles, he just shrugged and said it was up to us. We decided to go for it and out came the paper work. We signed a three year contract, standard, and filled out the registration form for Faces West and received our information package and went over the schedule with Charles, he circled the events she would be attending.


Once that was out of the way the topic of pictures came up. Because we needed the pictures for the Conference we wouldn't have time to schedule "creative" which means the photographer doesn't charge for their time or pictures because they are going to use them for their own portfolio, this can mean waiting a couple of months for someone to be available. Charles suggested we use his make-up artist and photographer, the cost would be $200.00 and it would include hair, make-up and wardrobe for three looks, in this industry that's cheep. Considering Stacey Eastman (I blogged about him in an earlier posting) wanted $2,500.00 for the same thing, I was happy to agree to the cost. We had two weekends before the conference to get this done and Charles said he would make the arrangements.



We had hoped for the weekend of October 30th or 31st but the make-up artist and photographer were not available, so we would have to do it the following weekend. He assured me we would have the pictures before the conference. Everything is digital and they would be emailed to me. The photo shoot was scheduled for Sunday November 7th at 1:00pm. The address Charles gave me was for the make-up artist who also happens to be his daughter Fabienne. I was a little unsure of this as it seemed similar to the whole Stacey Eastman thing with him using his wife's company to do the photography. What I was to learn later is this is a tight knit industry and breaking into it if you don't either know someone or are related to someone is very difficult. By the time the photo shoot was done I had no issues with Fabienne doing hair and make-up she did an amazing job so amazing that my daughter was recognised for it. (You'll read about that later).

Fabienne is an actress she has done some local work and you can actually google her and get her profile, Fabienne Quest if your interested. She's a tiny thing, 5'3" and because my daughter is 5'9 1/2" she had to crouch down when Fabienne wanted to touch up her hair or make-up it was quite comical to watch. Being that she is an actress, she's a pro at hair and make-up she is an artist for certain, my daughters make-up was flawless.


The photo shoot was to take place outside at a beach location, it was a very sunny mild day even though it's November we figured it would be fine. Well unfortunately the clouds rolled in and it got cold really quickly and my poor daughter dressed in a short skirt, tights and a thin blouse was freezing her butt off, but you know, she didn't complain one bit even when they had her lie on the ground for a couple of shots and the set up time between shots was painfully long. After a time, the photographer called a friend who is also a photographer to come and help because we were loosing day light and he was worried about running out of time. This particular friend was a God-send for sure. Because he was freezing he suggested we go to his parents studio to finish up, they had a great space that we were able to use and it was in doors. I know my daughter was happy about that, we all were.


We finished up the photo shoot at about 7:00pm and ended up with four looks instead of just three and a couple hundred shots to look though. Because it was a school night and my kids were due to come to my house for the week I couldn't stick around to go through the pictures with Fabienne and Matt, I left it to them to pick out the best and they certainly did. The fifty shots Matt sent me were awesome, I couldn't believe the subject was my little girl, absolutely beautiful. Matt emailed them to me on Monday and Fabienne gave me a list of twenty six to have printed on 8"x12" glossy paper. Costco by the way has the best price for prints of that size, $1.89 each. I took them in on Wednesday night and was told they would be ready Friday morning which was perfect because we didn't need them until Saturday for the Photography Contest at Faces West.


The rest of last week was spent gathering clothing items she would need, shoes were the big issue, it's not easy finding heels that fit her properly and don't hurt her feet. This is a girl who lives in her Converse All-Stars and until the photo shoot she had only tried out my heels around the house. We managed to find a pair that were a good height and comfortable yeah Payless! She also needed runners, these are now serving time as her gym shoes because she's out grown her regular gym shoes. Athletic wear, something form fitting was required and all she had were baggy sweats and big t-shirts, I found Roots yoga pants at Winners and a nice quality tank top at H&M along with a really cute mini skirt. There, clothes and shoes crossed off the list.


Next was make-up, I have my own make-up of course and any of it would have been fine but I wanted her to have her own, this isn't going to be the last time she will need it and getting it now is as good a time as any. One of the major considerations is what ever foundation we get it has to match her skin perfectly and it has to hide her scar, you know, the one from the removal of her birthmark. Well, Shoppers Drug Mart now carries all the high end cosmetics and one of the companies we both like is Benefit, they have a great selection of products. We chose a light concealer and yellow dusting powder. When it's on her scar literally disappears it's a perfect match. I also bought her a set of professional brushes to apply the make-up with. None of this was cheep BUT I had points! And it was 20X the points that night so we worked the totals to maximise my points and we got $60.00 off the total cost, it was still $110.00 but the $60.00 sure helped. She's worth every penny. We got a great eyeshadow, blush and lipstick set from ICING that has so many colours she's pretty much set for a few years.


OK, make-up is now off the list. The rest of the weekend should be a piece of cake, well should be was wishful thinking. There was still the cost of parking at the hotel down town and gas, and we have to eat, there wouldn't be enough time to go home and eat before the next event, oh and I still had to renew my Costco membership and pay for the pictures, and a portfolio to put them in. It's ok though she's worth it and so was this experience. I do have to give a huge thanks to my partner (even though he never reads my blogs) for co-signing a small loan to help pay for this, well this and Christmas, we each took $500.00 from the amount borrowed, and it's a short term thing I plan on having paid off in less than a year but that's a whole other story, anyway none of this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for him. As for my ex, except for paying $100.00 towards the photo shoot he's not contributed a single thing to this. AND he informed me that he wouldn't be either.

So our weekend begins Thursday night at 7:00pm with Runway Practice. This is also when we sign in and she gets her number, she's number 349 in the Females 13 to 19 over 5'8" category, there were 73 girls in this category. She did two practice runs and nailed "the walk" there was a representative from one of the agencies giving pointers and she got "good job, very nice" both times. Of course this is where I take credit, I had already taught her the walk a few weeks back when we returned from the Seattle trip. My training paid off...eventually!


We returned home and prepared for Friday, because of the Remembrance day stat some of the guys at the office decided to take an extra long weekend and because of this I was unable to take Friday off, well as it turned out one of these particular guys did come in and I was able to leave early, we had the Runway Competition that night and I had to go deposit the cheque from the loan we got at the bank so I would have money for the weekend. That was almost a disaster but thanks again to my most wonderful man it was averted, and only because I was so frazzled that I wasn't thinking straight and need him to be the brains behind the operation. So with cash in hand we do our running around and manage to make it back down town with time to spare. The runway competition went off without a hitch, she looked good. We did bring her camera but I was too far away to get a good shot. The big thing that night though was Coco Rocha looking at her book!


I had brought her pictures for Fabienne to look at and pick the best two for the photography competition on Saturday. Fabienne being a close friend of Coco's was sitting next to her and was asking her opinion of the pictures. Coco picked her two favourites, but Fabienne added a third because she just couldn't decide, because we were leaving she suggested we get her dad and a few of his colleagues to have a look and decide after they offer their opinion. Fair enough, Saturday was going to be a full day so we headed home to get some rest.


We were back up and running by 9:00am. We had to be back at the hotel for 11:00am for the sports wear competition, this used to be the bathing suite competition but they changed it years ago. Sports wear is much better, less revealing, or at least not as revealing. Again, no nervousness and all smiles my pretty girls headed down the catwalk with style and grace, and in thirty seconds her participation in that competition was done. We decided to go looking for a proper sized portfolio for her pictures but ended up running home for lunch in stead. Saved a little money on food but not so much on gas.


The Photography competition was due to start at 3:00pm and now that we've been through a couple competitions we know she's not going to compete until at least 4:00pm. They take the kids first which there are 115 contestants, then the female 13-19 under 5'8" (yes you can be short and be a model) which I believe there were about 70 girls and then my daughters category, and her being #349 there were 48 contestants before her. We had a bit of a wait. She had changed into her "little black dress" very professional looking and had her two pictures picked out, Charles' assistant Kim picked the two, we chose the one Coco really liked and one of the other two Fabienne couldn't decide on. This competition was judged by the visiting agents based on pose, make-up, hair, energy and flare. This was also the competition where the agents decided on their "listed call backs" this is the list of girls they want to see on Sunday.


As she passed each of the 30 agents they would ask her how old she was and how tall, most she said were quite surprised to hear how tall she is for her age, that in this industry is a good thing. Once this was done we were free to go for dinner, the award ceremony was scheduled for 7:00pm and it was 4:00pm. We had in and out privileges for parking so we hopped in the van to go find something to eat. We ended up at Subway of all places, it was her request. I guess she felt like a sub. We ate and were done by 5:00pm and still had two hours to kill. We drove through Stanley Park and chatted, that didn't take long so we popped over to North Vancouver for a quick visit with my partner then we headed back to the hotel. We were early. I was chatting with one of the people working the convention, she's kind of the operations manager, very nice girl and very helpful, I had mentioned that we thought there was no sense sticking around for the awards as we didn't think she would win anything being so new to this. Bree suggested we stay, as she says, my daughter is very "noticeable" and she may just win something.


I'm glad we stayed. After the acting certificates were handed out by Fabienne Coco took over the modeling awards, they went through all the categories for runway, sports ware and photography starting with the kids, I won't lie, it was tedious. When they got to my daughters category for photography they would call the second runner up, first runner up and winner, well, low and behold they called her number for FIRST RUNNER UP! We were both so surprised. I had no idea she would win, with all the beautiful girls with way more experience we thought this was just great an actual award! So very exciting. Keep in mind she's only just signed with her agency two weeks prior.


We both left the hotel on cloud nine. I told her over and over how proud of her I was and what an amazing opportunity this has been. She was pretty pleased with herself but it was late and we had to be back at the hotel for 8:00am for the listed call back sheets, this is the BIG day, this is where the girls can take their book to the agents directly and give them their contact information for future work this is THE DAY! We expected maybe four or five call backs, when she was showing her pictures to the agents she would notice if they circled her number on their sheets and she calculated about five, well she got twenty! That's a lot for call backs considering some girls didn't get any. Again we were thrilled right up until we saw the line-ups.


Let me explain. In the morning from 9:00am to 11:00am were the open go sees this is where if you were not on a particular agents call back list you could still show them your book and maybe peak their curiosity. We could have waited until the after noon for the call backs but because some of the agents were leaving early if you had a call back from them you needed to see them during the open go sees so they could leave on time. She had five to see. Luckily they were not the big agencies and their line ups were pretty short. All except MMG Management NY. Her line up was huge because she chatted with each girl longer than really was needed. I stood in that line for an hour and an half while my daughter went to some of the other call backs that had shorter lines to get them out of the way for the after noon. By the time we got to see the agent from MMG she was the last one in the room as all the other agents had gone for lunch.


MMG was a HUGE waist of time, I have no idea why she put my daughter on her call back list she wanted model/actors not just models. My daughter is not interested in acting and when the agent heard this she explained what she was looking for took her contact sheet and sent us on our way. By this time we were starving and I had a headache. I swore I wasn't going to go through that again.


After lunch all the girls that didn't get call backs were gone and the room was a lot easier to negotiate. We had eight agents left to see and the lines were much shorter. The Asian agents were funny, they didn't care about her book they wanted measurements and their own pictures. We had great feed back from Elite New York, Elite Paris and One New York. Elite Toronto was concerned about her age he wanted girls a little older but would keep tabs on her progress. All the European agents said she was too young as well, they have very strict laws about kids and they don't use girls under 15 years old. A good majority of them said they would be in contact with her agent to keep track of her as well. All in all we had a lot of positive feed back from the agents and they were impressed with her pictures. So now we wait.

I started the blog yesterday after noon, and this morning when I checked my email there was one from Charles. He wanted to congratulate her on a job well done and to let me know that he figures she would be heading overseas soon. He wants me to call in the next few days and he's putting her pictures on his international website. I'm hoping that any overseas work she gets won't happen until summer, I don't want her missing too much school because of this, that's not the reason we are persuing modeling, the whole mission here is for her university fund, she want's to be a doctor and if I know my daughter that's exactly what she will be.

The next step for her now is to gain experience, she needs to do a few local fashion shows and some local print work and just get a feel for the industry and how it works and of course continue just being a 13 year old girl. She has several years ahead of her to develop this career and I'm going to be sure that it doesn't overwhelm her, the nice thing is, she is mature for her age and has a good perspective of all of this, she's not expecting to be an overnight sensation. She has met girls who have been doing this for a few years now and they certainly aren't huge sucesses so she knows this is a tough industry and with a little luck and the right agent she will get work, how much is a whole other story.

So there you have it, our weekend in a nut shell. Of course as this progresses I'm sure I will be blogging about it but for now we put it aside and carry on with life. I have Christmas to think about now and the thought of traveling anywhere foreign is not at the top of my list.

With much love, light and a long road ahead,
Tammy.