Twice a year, I have the privilege of traveling to Los Angeles, California with one of my clients, Vanilla Star Jeans! I have been working as a showroom model for this company since 2010. They design and manufacture apparel to several stores such as Macy's, Target, Tilly's, Belk, Wet Seal, Rue 21, JC Penny, Kohl's, and more. I model for their junior apparel line, which began primarily as jeans, but now ranges from denim and non-denim bottoms to tops and sweaters as well!
Showroom modeling is one type of modeling that I book frequently. (Though the majority of my work right now is fit modeling-- more on that soon!) People tend to ask me what a showroom model actually is, so I wanted to share some photos from my latest trip to LA from market last week. Although I travel to LA twice a year with Vanilla Star, I work every month in their showroom in NYC for market week. Market week (for juniors denim) is generally the first week of every month, and is the week where fashion buyers from all over book appointments with manufacturers to view their upcoming line and place an order for their stores. A buyer is typically buying a few seasons ahead of time, so last week we were showing a lot for Spring 2016. The sales and design teams at Vanilla Star work very hard to present the line to their buyers and offer them great products that will not only sell, but be on trend, with high quality, at a low cost. The buyers are looking at a LOT of garments, and need to see what each would look like on... and that is where I come in! :)
I spend my days of market running back and forth from client to client presenting whatever garment they want to see "on the body." I have to keep up with which garment I am presenting to whom, and obviously do my best to make it look great! The buyers usually ask my opinion of the garment, how it feels on, etc. Vanilla Star has a handfull of salespeople that can sometimes each be working their own appointment with a different store, so I am working multiple appointments at a time to keep up with whatever each store needs to see on. Sometimes a job like this sounds glamourous, but of course trying on 100+ things in an 9 hour day can get pretty exhausting! However, I love the team at Vanilla Star and have truly loved working for them over the last 5 years. I am excited for more to come!
Hope you enjoy the photos and understand a little bit more of what a showroom model does! :)
Xo- Tara
