Episode 9: London’s Calling

This week the Top Model contestants ventured overseas to begin their international modelling careers. My South African house mate wishes Cassi all the best in this endeavour, and eagerly awaits her arrival in Taipei. He also suggests that if she would like to occupy the largest room in this apartment, he has no problem sharing with her. The excitement surrounding this brief trip was generally unsubstantiated, as the flight from Sydney to London takes 26 hours. Amounting to almost 3 days of travel, an additional day of filming establishing shots, and then 3 days remain to experience the European culture (limited to some subway travel and a visit to Top Shop).

As the girls arrive in England, a clear winner becomes apparent. Identified by her attachment to a certain amphibious creature, the secret of every Top Model career. My Brazilian room mate Tamine laughs in delight.

Tamine and Matheus

His name is Matheus. Mattheus is a frog. Her boyfriend is also named Mattheus. This is about as romantic as Cassi remembering her own bricklaying boyfriend, as she observes the use of bricks in London. Tamine quickly replaces the icepack on her already perfect nose afraid that the vibrations of laughter may aggravate her most recent injury. She has been particularly unfortunate during her time in Taiwan, and this ailment was the result of diving into a shallow pool earlier this week. After a trip to the emergency room she was relieved to discover that nothing was broken, and she would be able to return to work within a couple of days. The next part of this story also corresponds with the progression of Top model, spelt centering around the ominous task of using public transport to arrive at castings within a foreign country. Basically, we failed. Although admittedly, the task was made rather more difficult when the only map we could obtain was written in Mandarin. Basically there were two trains that left from the same station and we boarded the wrong one. When we disembarked after 10 stops, we were lost.

Beyond the perils of public transport and experiencing the wonders of hotel rooms in a new country, this trip has enabled the girls to work with some famous London sights. Generally this would imply ‘a portion of space with definite boundaries’, however as proof reading has been cut back on this episode this is not the case. The ‘sites’ include a telescope, a telephone box, a bus, and a house. The elimination of Adele has also left me doubting the intelligence of this program, and I am led to believe that Clare will be the next to leave.

Finally I would like to support the encouragement offered by Elle Macpherson to the girls this week, although it appears that something has died on her jacket. Another few animals adorn the girls coats at the film première this week. Shame on you Top Model for supporting the senseless fur trade. Meanwhile I volunteer with with Animals Taiwan to address the cruelty that this industry promotes, and encourage anyone who visits this country to assist their valuable organisation.

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  • Lady Mara

    Adele and Clare could have been a legendary Final 2, but as always, the host gets what she wants.

  • Matty

    I was hoping there would be no bias this year…what a disgrace.
    Cassi’s picture got criticised by the judges, both initially and during deliberation, BUT SHE STILL GOT CALLED OUT 2ND?????
    They even tried to justify their decision with “we know you had problems with the styling and location”, but when has that ever been an acceptable excuse for not getting eliminated? Where’s the precedent?

    Anyway, keep up the good work Alamela :)

  • Rebekah

    Yeah, I think something was wrong with the call-outs this week. I was expecting so much more from Cassi’s shoot, and everyone else’s, for that matter. Whoever picked those photos in London should be fired. Tahnee’s was the least awful photo (somehow), followed by Adele (who also won the challenge…), then Clare, then Cassi (whose photoshoot is reminiscent of the U train ones. Hm.). I was all excited to see the photos, since I love Cassi’s first few photos until she got sloppier after the desert shoot. Speaking of desert shoots, I miss Madison and her online bonus clips.

    And I noticed the fur thing too, Alamela! What was with that? I saw those coats and wondered who thought it would be a good idea to have those on television. I thought maybe Adele would say something about it, seeing as she is the fashion student.

  • Jacques

    I am also speechless as to how a Sarah mail could ever have left the production room containing the worlds ‘most toughest’ in sequential order.

    That seems to have been an Adeleism, if my elite video pausing skills have served me correctly.

  • http://ausntm.all-antm.net/ Francisco

    But what about YOUR giant stuffed frog?

  • alamela

    Your elite video pausing skills have served you well Jacques, perhaps there is still hope for Top Model.

  • Stephen

    As undeservingly pretentious as Australia’s Next Top Model sometimes believes it is through the use of contextually inaccurate quotes, it is first and foremost a television show about physical attractiveness and how that translates through the lens of both the camera and the creative team involved. I do not presume to believe that the quieter characters in the house are necessarily more intelligent than the louder, obnoxious ones (eg. Adele doesn’t actually come across as that bright a bulb, no matter her vocational area of study), but I do concede that this is usually the case – it was very obvious that you were one of the more aware members of the house, Alamela, along with Alex and Caris I would say.

    Many days too late, but when criticising the lack of grammatical correctness in Australia’s Next Top Model, I would suggest editing enough to correct “worlds” to “world’s,” haha.

  • George

    So glad someone else cares about aboloshing the horrific fur trade! I think it’s disgusting when top model shows promote it, it’s something that isn’t needed in the fashion industry and I’m pretty sure wouldn’t be missed. Especially by the poor helpless animals they’re killing in the process.

  • alamela

     haha good point Stephen, and I think that we all know I am hardly worthy of criticising grammatical or spelling errors. I do however particularly dislike tautology and the overuse of semicolons…

    You are also right that the quieter girls are not implicitly more intelligent. Although I do believe that their numerous intelligent statements rarely survive the editing process, often causing these smart girls to appear more reserved.

  • Isobel

    What do you think of hair extentions? because apparently poor Indian and Russian girls sell their hair for only a couple of dollars, while the people they sell their hair to sell it on for hundreds of dollars. Don’t you think the poor girls are being treated appallingly?

  • alamela

     Dear Isobel,

    There are so many moral dilemmas in this industry. I am opposed to the use of hair extensions, leather, and sweatshops. However, my refusal to wear such products would greatly limit my modelling career. While essentially continuing to work towards the elimination of these industries, I must maintain some degree of professional flexibility. Items that I absolutely refuse to work with include alcohol, tobacco, and fur.

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