Runway: Confessions of a not-so-supermodel
By Meghan Ward
()
About this ebook
Meghan Ward
Meghan Ward’s book reviews, personal essays, and news stories have appeared in numerous publications, including the anthology It’s So You: 35 Women Write About Personal Expression Through Fashion and Style. She blogs weekly at Writerland.com.
Related to Runway
Related ebooks
Runway: Confessions of a Not-So-Supermodel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModel Undercover: New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WIN THE RUNWAY Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Truth About Modelling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Last Year in New York Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReverence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Model Manifesto: An A-Z anti-exploitation manual for the fashion industry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModeling From the Ground Up: Strategies for Building a Successful Modeling Career Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Be The Next Top Model: Confession of a Professional Modeling Instructor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFashion Modeling: The Everything Guide to Modeling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBallerina, My Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boston Ballerina: A Dancer, a Company, an Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFashioned: The Secret Life Of A Mom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecrets of the Model Dorm Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFollow the Model: Miss J's Guide to Unleashing Presence, Poise, and Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mods, Minis, and Madmen: A True Tale of Swinging London Culture in the 1960S Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Different Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarina Svetlova: A Tribute Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Someday Courtesan: A Memoir in Stories: My Whorizontal Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKate Moss: Addicted to Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Model Bible: The Must-Have Guide For Anyone Interested In Becoming A Female Model Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Look Book: 50 Iconic Beauties and How to Achieve Their Signature Styles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMakeup Tips from Auschwitz: How Vanity Saved my Mother's Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything About Me Is Fake . . . And I'm Perfect Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Third Swan from the Left: The Stories, Musings, and Random Thoughts of a Wandering Artist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ballet Lover Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFashion Babylon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stripped Down: How Burlesque Led Me Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Up From Slavery: An Autobiography: A True Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Runway
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Runway - Meghan Ward
www.shebooks.net
I arrive in Paris on September 12, 1988, armed with two Polaroid pictures and three years of high school French. I am 18, straight out of Catholic school, and about to discover what it’s like to be one of the 99 percent of international fashion models who never make it onto the cover of Vogue. My first week in Paris, I book two photo shoots and a fashion show: French Glamour with Ellen von Unwerth, who shoots all the Guess ads, Biba, a French teen magazine, and the Hermès show.
The Glamour shoot is set to take place at the Piscine Deligny, a fashionable swim club built on a barge anchored to the bank of the Seine. I’m instructed to meet the crew at the location van parked nearby. I’m both excited and nervous. This is my first modeling job in Paris, and with a famous photographer, no less! My life would be easier if I weren’t so damn shy. Maybe I could take acting classes or join Toastmasters and learn to give speeches. Then again, no one cares what models have to say.
Inside the van is everything we’ll need for the day: food, a table and sink, a bathroom, all of the clothing and accessories, and dozens of Chanel, Shiseido, and Dior eye shadows, lipsticks, and blushes. Outside, I see Ellen shooting a Marilyn Monroe doppelgänger. The peroxide model leans against a wooden railing, expertly twirling this way and that, batting her eyelashes and pursing her lips. Then she grips the railing behind her, throws her head back, and laughs. She’s fantastic. I haven’t the first clue how to do what she’s doing, so I try to memorize her every move—the way she positions her feet, the way she touches one hand to her chest and tosses her chin to the sky with that carefree grin. I want to be a straight-A model.
Great! Great!
Ellen yells, snapping madly at her shutter release.
My modeling experience amounts to three test shoots in Detroit, during one of which I stared expressionless at the camera while the photographer kept yelling, "Can’t you do anything!?" They expect you to magically know how to move in front of a camera, and it’s not as easy as it looks. It’s a skill, and, like any skill, it takes practice. But they don’t teach you; you’re just expected to learn on the job. And if you have taken classes at a modeling school like Barbizon, they will heave great sighs of displeasure and insist that you forget everything you know because you have learned it all wrong.
Meghan!
calls Stephane, the skinny makeup artist with Buddy Holly glasses. "On y va?" I follow him back to the van to have my makeup done. As I sit there, my head against the warm velour bucket seat, his feathery makeup brushes lull me to sleep.
Wake up, sweetheart,
he says, finally. "It’s time for your hair. I grab a second pain au chocolat and transfer myself to the hair chair,
while Silke, a German hairstylist with spiky blond hair and tattoos, douses my head with a liquid gel that smells like sage. I could swear I’ve met her before.
You look familiar,
I say.
She shrugs. We’ve probably worked together before,
she says, combing the gel into my hair. I’m too embarrassed to tell her that I’ve never worked with anyone before, that this is my first job. Then she looks over at Stephane and announces that she’s found Jesus. It turns out that he, too, has found Jesus and now they’re best friends. Jesus? Are they serious? I abandoned my family and friends, denounced God, and traveled 6,000 miles to see the world for—Jesus? Where are the lines of coke, the all-night parties on yachts in the Mediterranean, the dancing on tables, the casual sex? I’ve been trying to lose Jesus for years, so I duck into the back of the van as soon as Silke is finished with my hair.
The clothing stylist, an anorexic-looking woman named Inès, garbs me like a rock star in the