Every year, as the annual Victoria\u2019s Secret show draws near, we read multiple reports (sometimes conflicting) about who will and won\u2019t be walking in the lingerie show. We have office polls on who should have this year\u2019s Fantasy Bra honours and speculate on which models will be inducted into the elite league of Angels. Piece by piece, the official word comes through. An interview here, a press release there and an Instagram post from every confirmed model thanking Ed Razek and the Victoria\u2019s Secret team for casting them in the show. But what about the models who didn\u2019t get chosen? If you think about it, they are the majority of the models who auditioned but they usually stay relatively quiet on the matter. In fact, most models that do make it into the show have been rejected once, twice or multiple times before.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t get a free pass to this show, you don’t get in because you are somebody, you get in because you earned it,\u201d Ed Razek, chief marketing officer of Victoria\u2019s Secret, told our reporter backstage at the 2014 show. \u201cWe have set a standard and people respect that. Everyone in this show has to be at the level of these girls \u2013 they have to be the best in the world at what they do. If they are not they can\u2019t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take Sara Sampaio. It was a case of third time lucky for the Portuguese model, who made her debut in 2013. \u201cThe first year I didn’t get picked it was okay,\u201d she told Vogue last year. \u201cThe second time I didn\u2019t make it, it was like a knife. It is something you work all year for and when you don\u2019t make you it you really start doubting yourself. The third time I thought \u2018I\u2019m not giving them any excuse not to pick me\u2019. This is a very special booking, you have to earn your way into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being cast one year doesn\u2019t guarantee you\u2019re cast the next. Every model \u2013 unless you have an \u2018Angel\u2019 contract \u2013 has to audition, no matter how many times they have walked previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had gone one prior year before and not gotten it and then the year I went I got it and I think I went the year after and I didn\u2019t get it,\u201d Elyse Taylor said of her audition experience. \u201cI think it means more when you are rejected and then you do get it. And so many girls go year after year and they don\u2019t get it and put so much work into it for nothing. I mean it\u2019s quite shattering and I\u2019ve spoken to girls that are devastated, just crying. There\u2019s so much that goes into getting your body ready and getting mentally ready for that confidence for 30 seconds while you\u2019re at the casting so it\u2019s quite stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Taylor hasn\u2019t ruled out doing the Victoria\u2019s Secret show again. \u201cI\u2019m always open to working with them and they\u2019re a great family to be a part of and I love everything about that company and they\u2019ve just been so great to me so if they gave me the casting to come in and do the show then 100% I would.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stars weren\u2019t aligned for Gigi Hadid last year, despite her best efforts. \u201cI was working out every day, and I felt my body was really ready,\u201d she told us recently about preparing for the audition. \u201cI was healthy, athletic and ready for the show but I think that the only thing that got in my way was genuinely how nervous I was. I can\u2019t tell you how scary it is walking into that room, it is so scary.\u201d Despite being upset at the time, the experience has only sharpened her focus on the end prize. \u201cI kind of used this year [2014] as my warm up and my way to go in next year [2015] with more confidence and knowing what it\u2019s going to be like. You know I was so nervous and I think that that came off as shy. I wouldn\u2019t consider myself the shyest person but you definitely can\u2019t be shy when you\u2019re doing the Victoria\u2019s Secret show. I think that if anything it\u2019s given me more confidence for next year and I can use it as an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just the kind of attitude that will get you a Victoria\u2019s Secret gig \u2013 and much, much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every year, as the annual Victoria\u2019s Secret show draws near, we read multiple reports (sometimes conflicting) about who will and won\u2019t be walking in the lingerie show. We have office polls on who should have this year\u2019s Fantasy Bra honours and speculate on which models will be inducted into the elite league of Angels. Piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[444,1796,547,522,1153,1842,566,1079,980,1841,534,1843,447,86,837,1073,771,1514],"class_list":["post-11105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advice","tag-elyse-taylor","tag-gigi-hadid","tag-goals","tag-img-models","tag-inspiration","tag-rejection","tag-sara-sampaio","tag-sports-illustrated","tag-sports-illustrated-rookie","tag-success","tag-the-lions","tag-tips","tag-top-models","tag-victorias-secret","tag-victorias-secret-fashion-show","tag-vogue","tag-vogue-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11108,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11105\/revisions\/11108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}