Every year, as the annual Victoria’s Secret show draws near, we read multiple reports (sometimes conflicting) about who will and won’t be walking in the lingerie show. We have office polls on who should have this year’s 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’s Secret team for casting them in the show. But what about the models who didn’t 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.
“You 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,” Ed Razek, chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret, told our reporter backstage at the 2014 show. “We have set a standard and people respect that. Everyone in this show has to be at the level of these girls – they have to be the best in the world at what they do. If they are not they can’t be here.”
Take Sara Sampaio. It was a case of third time lucky for the Portuguese model, who made her debut in 2013. “The first year I didn’t get picked it was okay,” she told Vogue last year. “The second time I didn’t make it, it was like a knife. It is something you work all year for and when you don’t make you it you really start doubting yourself. The third time I thought ‘I’m not giving them any excuse not to pick me’. This is a very special booking, you have to earn your way into it.”
Being cast one year doesn’t guarantee you’re cast the next. Every model – unless you have an ‘Angel’ contract – has to audition, no matter how many times they have walked previously.
“I 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’t get it,” Elyse Taylor said of her audition experience. “I 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’t get it and put so much work into it for nothing. I mean it’s quite shattering and I’ve spoken to girls that are devastated, just crying. There’s so much that goes into getting your body ready and getting mentally ready for that confidence for 30 seconds while you’re at the casting so it’s quite stressful.”
That said, Taylor hasn’t ruled out doing the Victoria’s Secret show again. “I’m always open to working with them and they’re a great family to be a part of and I love everything about that company and they’ve just been so great to me so if they gave me the casting to come in and do the show then 100% I would.”
The stars weren’t aligned for Gigi Hadid last year, despite her best efforts. “I was working out every day, and I felt my body was really ready,” she told us recently about preparing for the audition. “I 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’t tell you how scary it is walking into that room, it is so scary.” Despite being upset at the time, the experience has only sharpened her focus on the end prize. “I 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’s going to be like. You know I was so nervous and I think that that came off as shy. I wouldn’t consider myself the shyest person but you definitely can’t be shy when you’re doing the Victoria’s Secret show. I think that if anything it’s given me more confidence for next year and I can use it as an advantage.”
That’s just the kind of attitude that will get you a Victoria’s Secret gig – and much, much more.
