Catwalking with Jay Alexander & Zac Posen

OK…by now you know that I am more interested in what goes on behind the scenes, where the magic is created.    I’ve always been more interested in how the magician does the trick…not how the trick looks.  So, while I was in New York I had the opportunity of watching the rehearsal for the Zac Posen show choreographed by Jay Alexander, you know, the guy from America’s Next Top Model.  Well, I say guy but he prefers to confuse us with his sexuality by wearing a lot of female clothes and hairstyles.  The question amongst my contemporaries is “Can a man really teach a woman how to walk?”  The jury is still out on that question but you can guess how I feel about it!

Anyway, designers sometimes hire high profile choreographers to set the show and encourage the models to walk less like robots and more like women and Jay is a pro at that.  He gets the whole room going as you can see in the clip, so much so that Zac Posen himself just couldn’t stay in his seat and had to get up and have a go.

Not all shows are choreographed.  In fact, most times the girls are told to walk up and down, do not turn, stop at the end of the catwalk for the ‘money shot’ (the photographer’s pen at the end of the catwalk)

The money shot!

and come back and leave…much different than my day when we actually did a show.  I guess I interpret the word show literally, like a Broadway or West End show where you actually entertain the audience instead of put them to sleep…but that is just one woman’s opinion.  Usually all you get backstage now is a large sign telling you what to do in a few adjectives and perhaps a chart of how they want you to walk.

Catwalk chart instructions

This chart I found back stage at the Diane von Furstenberg show and as you can see they weren’t even told to stop for the money shot.  I guess photographers have invented better ways of photographing models on the move. 

 

 

The other surprise for me was that models now just wear one outfit, that’s right, I said one outfit.  We used to wear at least 3 and up to 7 outfits per show so there were fewer models and more changes.  Some of us actually built our reputations on changing quickly.  The quicker you changed, the more outfits you were given and the more times you got to go on the catwalk.  Needless to say, I was one of the quickest changers in the business!

 

 

It doesn’t really make economic sense to hire 45 models for one show and give them each one outfit to wear but then fashion has never really been economical.