Model Tanya Dziahileva meets the weight
requirements.Photo: imaxtree
If you’re hoping to see beefier-looking models at Fashion Week next month, you can forget about it: According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, it sounds like that’s not going to happen. Hard to believe, we know. Today’s version of the story involves aspiring model Tatiana Stewart. Stewart moved here a year ago to become a ballet dancer but modeling beckoned; she was scouted and accepted a gig modeling clothes and helping customers at Abercrombie & Fitch. Ford, Click, and Elite agents came calling, but the six-foot-two 18-year-old can’t catch a break — even America’s Next Top Model casting agents were interested but changed their minds.
So what’s the problem? You guessed it: Tatiana is — wait for it — a size 4. Modeling scouts advise her to slim down to a “loose size 2,” which would require losing ten to fourteen pounds. Here’s her account of her America’s Next Top Model casting call:
“They lined us up against the wall and asked our name, age, measurements, height and weight,” she says. “Then they told us to lift our shirts up just below the — the chest — and they filmed us to see our body type … That’s when I was cut.” She says she wasn’t given an explanation. CW Network, which airs the show, says it doesn’t have weight guidelines for the show but couldn’t comment on the specifics of her rejection.
Innnteresting. So what is she doing instead of modeling? Just like the casting agents, those savory characters known as nightclub promoters flocked to her, too, asking her to bring her pretty to their parties. Like any naïve 18-year-old, she accepted. And now she’s taken on jobs as a bottle girl at nightclubs, where undoubtedly very respectful and respectable patrons will collectively tip her around $600 to $1,500 a night. Seeing as she’s not even legally allowed to hang out in those places, her mother is pretty concerned about these new gigs. We are too.
