Former Insider Gives Some Advice about Modeling Schools
Modeling schools do teach makeup and runway. However, I have NEVER, EVER had to do my own makeup at a job. And, furthermore, when you audition, people don't want you to wear makeup. Girls that have on too much makeup are asked to either wash it off or leave.
As far as runway goes, you would be better off watching models on the runway and copying their moves. Rent a movie like "Gia" that features a lot of runway, and then copy it in front of a full length mirror until you get it.
Also, what they don't tell you is that runway shows are generally CHOREOGRAPHED!!
That means that you need to be able to copy what someone wants.
You are better off not getting stuck in one particular style. You would be better prepared by practising a variety of styles, so that you get used to mimicking what a choreographer wants.
All of my success as a model (and I would say I am a success story from a small market point of view) came from practice. The best thing to do is go on as many auditions as possible. Part of learning to be a model is learning to audition. So the more you audition, the better you get.
Furthermore, when you get a job, watch everything and learn. I learned to do makeup from watching the artists that did mine at every job. I perfected runway from watching other girls.
Until then my only experience had been with the classes I took. Back then the classes only cost $800 and I had a great instructor.
True, they didn't get me any work, but I always felt that my instructor had been great and she did a lot to boost my self-esteem. Now the lessons are over $2000.
Later, when I was teaching the classes I once took, the franchise was taking in an astounding $150,000 in tuition (for just my class), and paying $3,000 to me.
Now, keep in mind that one franchise has about 30 classes going at any given time. That makes for $4,500,000 every six months or $9,000,000 per year in tuition.
That also means that they are taking advantage of 4,500 students PER YEAR.
Now maybe you are thinking that it is worth the $2,000 to get lessons from an experienced instructor. Think again.
I was an exception. Most modeling instructors are former students that couldn't make the grade.
That's right, they are former students that weren't able to get any work as models, so they teach.
If the operation does not have a complete and proper curriculum to give the instructors, many teachers just make up the class as they go.
I also worked on the recruiting end (once again the recruiters are people who couldn't get any real work). When I did the recruiting shows, the "talent scouts" would make up jobs that they had done in the industry.
They would claim to have walked the runway in Milan, etc. This was all crap.
No model who has ever been successful enough to walk a runway in Milan is going to come back to be a "talent scout" at a Holiday Inn.
Girls who are that successful in the modeling industry go back and work for reputable agencies, and they don't need to recruit. They hold open calls out of their office.
Furthermore, those girls get a bonus for each student that enrolls in their courses.
They get $100 for each student they enroll. So basically, the more students that sign up, the more money they make.
So everyone gets into the school. The whole "audition" process is really a sales pitch to get you to pay for the classes.
There is no audition —if you can pay, you get in.
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