Are you TSF?

Thank God, I am TSF'

...that's Tall, Slim and Fair, say the young ramp aspirants who made a beeline to audition for the Lakme Fashion Week (September season) in Mumbai


What makes for a good professional model? Well, not just tall height, good skin tone with a slim body, for sure, if that's your first guess. Instead, a whole lot of individuality that makes for a winner. And that's precisely what Lakme Fashion Week model auditioners looked out for, recently. Young ramp aspirants who fit the bill as TSF (Tall, Slim and Fair) lasses who came for the model auditions recently, went home with a realisation that it takes much more than physical attributes to take to the ramp.
Incidentally, the minimum height criterion for female models has been increased from 5ft 7.5 inches to 5ft 7.7 inches for female models. Sorry guys! no male model auditions are planned to be held for the Mumbai Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2010 season.
I happened to peek into the female audition rounds where 63 girls from different parts of India and also abroad, took the ramp test on Wednesday with a hope to qualify for the upcoming season of LFW. They came in, registered, some pleaded if their height could be accepted since it was just bit lesser than asked for and some others kept applying lipstick for final touch-up. And after two gruelling rounds of shortlisting by a panel of experts including supermodel Sheetal Mallar, show director Marc Robinson, photographer Farokh Chautia and designers Narendra Kumar Ahmed and Monisha Jaising. only four promising faces made it — Two Indians Anjali Raut from Mumbai, Anuradha Nayudu from Nagpur, and two international girls Marcela Rodrigues from Brazil and Reyna Leyva from Mexico.
"I am really excited to come to India. This is my first time here, and Mumbai fashion is so talked about in Mexico," said Reyna with a heavy accent. Brazilian beauty Marcela was amazed at the professional approach toward newcomers. Anjali, a Miss India 2010 finalist who's sister Alecia Raut is an established ramp model, looked really happy when her named was called out by the auditioners.
Nagpur girl Anuradha couldn't stop grinning with glee. "Here I come," she announced.
Sheetal Mallar who was invited for the very first time to the auditioners panel was mighty impressed with the youthful talent during the rounds. She said, "During my time, we didn't go through auditions. We were selected by designers themselves, we were handful of us, anyway. But now, Mumbai is taking the approach that the international fashion world takes. It's an absolutely great change. And girls who come from smaller towns get such a wonderful platform to showcase their talents."
And then came the time for photo shoot with selected ones. Marc Robinson who's taken model auditions for many years kept the air comfortable during the rounds. Later, he said, "If Sheetal Mallar was to pose for a picture with the four finalists, then she would be mistaken for the fifth selected one."
Sujal Shah of IMG (the agency which puts the entire support system of Lakme Fashion Week in place) from the organising committee was pleased with the response, "This season, we’ve seen a good mix of domestic and international talent. There are so many fashion weeks happening simultaneously that girls who were participating in Delhi or Bangalore couldn't make it here for the auditions here in Mumbai. So, we may look at auditioning them at a later date too."
The four selected girls will be walking with the other established models at the Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2010 season which opens from September 17 to 21.

Girl with the blue scarf says, Why call so many girls for auditioning when all that will eventually be chosen would be just 4 or 5 of them. Considering so many aspirants come to auditions from smaller cities, if not selected, their hearts get broken. What For?