TV, that is. Over Valentine’s Day weekend I made a trip to the Big Apple to audition for the second season of a fashion reality show on the E Network. In general, reality TV looks fun, but this one really caught my eye because it was basically a competition to become the global ambassador of the company brand. After watching every episode of the first season I felt it was very sincere and unlike all other reality shows. So, I filled out the lengthy application with great excitement and waited for a reply. Less than a week later I received an e-mail saying that they would like me to create a 5 minute long video basically saying everything I already answered in the original application. With the help of friends and family I whipped up a video showcasing my personality, style, and answered all of their questions. Four days later I received another email saying that they would like me to come to NYC for an interview in one week. I was SO ecstatic! After reading all the information I was under the impression that I was going to a professional job interview. The email suggested bringing any work with me, i.e. a portfolio. For the next 6 days I learned EVERYTHING and ANYTHING there was to know about this company, all the names of their dresses, the past 6 collections, the board of trustees, ect.. I turned into a walking encyclopedia for this design house. On top of all that work, I took off a week at my job to redo my entire portfolio and fashion journal. My bank account was also pretty stressed out too after purchasing a new portfolio case, getting my nails done, buying a dress from the company, and going to NYC in general.

Saturday morning comes along and I am all ready. I show up around 11:30am and see about fifteen other girls waiting in line, which I expected. By noon there had to of been over 200 girls. By one o’clock, none of us had been seen. Mind you, it was under 10 degrees. So, finally they explain the “audition process”. One would think they would take us on a first come, first serve basis. Of course not! Let’s pull random people from the line who look like they read every issue of Women’s Wear Daily and poured every trend in the past 10 years all over them. At about 3:30pm (still standing outside) they probably met with a dozen girls and then finally decided to move us inside so we didn’t freeze to death. On the bright side, some guys from the crew went to Starbucks and got us all hot chocolate, but when it comes to air it’s going to look like the girls who work there got it. Heaven forbid! After another hour of waiting I finally had that two minute group interview! All they asked me, “What do you do?”. And on to the next group of frozen fashionistas…

I’m not really let down about the whole experience, more baffled. If I would have known to wear high strappy stilettos, striped old socks underneath them, cargo pants, and look miserable standing in line (which apparently means your edgy?) I would have done so. But silly me, I took it seriously.

And still I smile 🙂