It's five in the afternoon, three hours before the 2008 Style LA fashion show, but backstage at the Viceroy the models are already there and being prepared for the runway. Ford agency models Bianca and Katy, both 16, wait patiently to be put through hair and make-up. While they wait, Bianca, who will be walking in just her second show, listens to Katy describe what her life as model has been like. Katy has been modeling for two years and describes navigating bright lights on elevated runways and talks about the friendships she has developed with the other models in the agency through the hours they've spent together backstage at shows and on the sets of photo shoots.

Katy and Bianca's wait for their turn in hair and make-up continues and Katy further discusses her experience in the modeling world. She talks about the challenge of keeping up in school while commuting back-and-forth from Newport Beach to LA for model castings, runway shows, and print jobs. She tells Bianca about her upcoming trip to Australia this fall. Ford is sending her there to capitalize on the potential her refined blond, youthfully elegant look has in that market. Katy's mother will travel with her and home-school her while she is there, which Katy appreciates after a past year in which her grades showed the effect of all the days of school she had to miss because of modeling. Bianca listens with rapt attention, eager and nervous for the life change she is about to experience. Bianca and her entire family are anticipating a need to move from their home in San Diego to go wherever Bianca's modeling career takes them. As Katy says, "That's what family does for each other."

Meanwhile, model Kyle, 24, sits outside in the backstage courtyard and reads an eleventh century murder mystery written by Ellis Peters. He listens to his iPod while reading to further challenge himself. Kyle says he has gotten into expanding his vocabulary through reading and recently finished John Grisham's The Pelican Brief. He found the depth of this legal account fascinating, but was greatly disappointed when he later rented the less detailed, star-cast movie version. Kyle found that the movie paled in comparison to the book and the experience has made him, "not even want to watch movies anymore. I'd rather read the book." Kyle says that intellectual pursuits have never before been a priority to him, but now they are: "I find it absolutely amazing to learn new things all the time. There's so many things out there to know that you have no idea." Kyle has even set-up his Facebook so that it sends him a word-of-the-day, which he dutifully memorizes, and he is eager to take further advantage of the opportunities his modeling career presents. Last year he spent five months modeling in Thailand and Taiwan, and currently he is excited about the career possibilities his recent move from Miami to LA will open up. Kyle humbly and astutely notes that in the modeling world, "Across the board, women are always going to work more than men. We've always been just props. We make half as much as they do, but we smile pretty and have muscles and they just carry themselves so well. But it's not bad. It's something that I'm doing now just to travel and make money and I really enjoy it, you know. There's not too many other people my age that are having this opportunity, so I'm just taking it and running with it."

Inside the dressing room models sit for hair and make-up. Hairstylist Anh Co Tran expertly twirls a silver-plated flat-iron as he creates what he says is called the "Renaissance look," but laughingly concedes could also be termed the "just-woke-up-on-the-beach-if-you-were-sleeping-with-a-hairstylist look." Fellow hairstylist Julia, sultry-voiced and radiantly tattooed, stands across from Anh and carefully works on the same model's hair with a gold-plated crimping iron. Meanwhile down the line some of their meticulously messy hair creations are selected out by the show's stylist to be deformed into mildly teased out, birdnest dos. 

As model Brook, 19, gets her hair done and undone, she talks about her about her recent three month stay in Chicago. Brook, who grew up in Hawaii, says, "I mean Chicago wasn't that bad, like, I'd never been in snow before so it was definitely an experience, walking to the bus stop, to the train, and walking like a mile in snow to castings all over the city. It was a huge change. Yeah. It really wasn't that fun because I feel like during the winter everyone's in hibernation mode and no one really talks to each other. But during the summer I hear it's cool." Brook wasn't a huge fan of the Chicago winter, but career-wise her stay there was very successful. Her part-Chippewa Indian, part-Italian heritage has given her a very versatile look that enabled her to land jobs in Chicago as the "Latina catalogue girl" for Sears, Kmart, Mervyns, and Oprah. Brook explains that she is the oldest of five kids in her family, that her parents separated when she was little, and that she uses part of the money she earns to help support her family. Unlike some young models whose parents travel with them to the places their career takes them, Brook lived in Chicago alone and says she has been on her own since the age of 16.

As her hair completes its transformation from Renaissance to birdnest, Brook continues to speak with an introspective yet light-hearted tone about her childhood: "I sucked my thumb until I was eleven. I never had braces either, I got lucky. It might have been that I was alone so much and so independent, so I needed, like, that security…I had to suck my thumb to feel loved." Brook laughs at the comic drama in her statement, understanding of her parents' need to focus on her four much younger siblings. Brook stands and poses for a production shot of her finished hair just as the show's stylist announces, "Hey, I need quiet back here. Quiet. Anybody who's not a model, anyone who's not a dresser, or anyone who's not in hair or makeup, I need you out of here right now. Thank you."

While the models change into their first looks, in the backstage courtyard the Kardashian sisters are taking a short break from their hosting duties and Kim checks out the gold jewelry the models will be wearing in the show. The models, now in bathing suits, soon begin to gather in the courtyard and they impishly whisper amongst each other as the Kardashians go out to the runway to announce the show. As the event's sponsors and charitable causes are paid tribute to, backstage Anh the hairstylist mischievously wields a can of hairspray he uses to touch up the models, as well as an unsuspecting journalist. Model Heather Brown alights in a hot grandma chic bathing suit and mentions offhand and without concern that, "My feet are killing me." Redheaded Czech model Zdenka, with whimsical levity, recites the multi-lingual station IDs she does for Pacifica Radio: "You're listening to the KPFK on 90.7 FM in Los Angeles and 98.7 FM in Santa Barbara and online at www.kpfk.org . Oui, monsieur."

The Pussy Cat Doll's "When I Grow Up" plays and the show begins. The models josh about in line as they wait to walk the runway and when they get back are immediately ushered to the jewelry table to return the pieces that they just modeled. They then go into the dressing room where a team of dressers help them get into their next look. Model Caitlin, with world wowing smile energy and a look that resembles Kate Hudson, talks about how she once met Eddie Murphy's stand-in who also works as his paparazzi-double. Heather Brown, now in a bright yellow ruffle dress, jokingly declares, "They call me Big Bird," though soon glides it down the runway with her polished charismatic serenity.

Right after the show an anonymous model says that her, "shoes were falling off. It's a little slippery out there. And don't tell anyone, but I didn't go out for the finale. Don't tell." Kyle, the intellectual model, says that the show was, "Awesome. It was a good time." Was it better than reading? "It was." Model Clarice swaggers across the quickly emptying dressing room and talks about the substantial meal he ate before the show: "Chicken parmesan, spaghetti, with a vase of wine. It makes the abs pop out a bit," he jokes. Clarice drawls plans with one of the other guy models to "Grab-a-drink" and says, "You know, one of the tricks actually a lot of models do is take a shot before they hit the runway. Just a shot, nothing like crazy." Some models, some shows, but tonight's backstage scene was a youthful totally wholesome affair. Energized and playful, all about bottled water, M&M's, and hairstyling.

Now in jeans and a black tank-top, the vibrantly slender, fairy queen featured model Naelia sits in the runway seats with model Shakeera and assesses the show: "It was my first runway show over water so...well,  it was fun. It was a good crowd. Everyone was actually paying attention. The clothes were spectacular and good energy. Good show. Really great people working with. Good time. Good quote, huh?"

Across the pool, CUUR contest winner Katelyn Verrier sits in the presenting sponsor's cabana and describes her spokesmodeling experience at the event: "Well, we walked the red carpet, we mingled with the celebrities and stuff, and just talked about CUUR and what it does. Sponsoring a great cause. It was really fun. It was awesome." Across the cabana from Katelyn, Gwen Kent, the president of CUUR, talks about the self-assured presence that was on display on the evening's runway. "That's how I see a model walking down the runway. It's so deep, it's not shallow at all. Someone instilled some kind of confidence in them or they wouldn't be there and who knows who it was, but it's a beautiful personal thing for me to see that." Gwen goes on to say, "I think that being a mom makes me see that and go, 'I want to teach all my kids to be like that.' You know really positive…I'm always like, 'shoot for the stars, you can be president of the United States. You can be anything you want'." Gwen later describes the CUUR supplement's "lovely subtle energy," suggesting that there is more than surface depth to the marketing connection she's established between her diet product and fashion; that the energy in CUUR reflects deeply with the aspirational energy of the runway.

The courtyard has emptied. The models are gone. Inside the Viceroy the hairstylists laugh and lounge around a mod platter of oysters and make fun of hairstylist Julia for her deep voice and sexy Beverly Hills salon shocking work attire. At the front door, the valet line has dissipated. Style LA 2008 has come to a close.

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Links:

Ford Models www.fordmodels.com

l.a. models www.lamodels.com

CUUR www.scnutrition.com

Style LA http://www.stylela.net

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