Hello fashionistas!!!
Only one more week till the spectacular finale of Cycle 16!!! Can you stand the wait? Last night’s episode saw the competition heat up for the three remaining girls as Brittani, Hannah and Molly geared up for the last few challenges before three became two.
Brittani starts off by celebrating Alexandria being sent home and talks about the excitement of being in the final three and the possibility of winning the competition. Both Hannah and Molly also talk about how they deserve to be America’s Next Top Model. Looks like this will be an epic battle to the finish!
Mr. Jay arrives the next morning and shows the girls a tape of Lara Spencer from ‘The Insider’ issuing a challenge to each of the girls to conduct a 90 second on-camera interview in a Moroccan marketplace about beauty products. The girls are then given a choice of three beauty products to choose from as the main topic of their piece. Brittani chooses henna, Molly chooses black kohl and Hannah chooses argan oil. Mr. Jay explains that he would like the girls to cover the three W’s - where, what and why in their interviews. Each girl goes off to their respective stores to do their research, find interview subjects and practice before they go on air.
Brittani has trouble finding anyone who speaks English to be her interview candidate and ends up finding a local merchant to be her subject. When she starts her interview, we see that she begins well, but then walks away from the camera to go outside and find the merchant on the street. The camera races to follow her only to record her asking questions that allow one word answers and the interview gets cut off as she runs overtime.
Molly is very strong, knowledgeable and easy going on camera and to everyone’s surprise, performs extremely well. She drops her ‘camera face’ a little too soon and ends up saying her performance was horrible while still on air.
Hannah talks about her previous journalism experience and feels that it will give her an edge in this challenge. She ends up rambling and not allowing her interviewees to talk and then runs out of time.
Mr. Jay declares Molly the winner and tells her the interview will air on The Insider.com! I have to say I was really impressed with her poise during the interview; she was confident, charismatic and sleek.
The next day Tyra joins the girls in their apartment and they all have a good old cry fest. Each girl opens up about her vulnerability and they share their deepest fears with Tyra. Tyra gives hugs all around and talks about how she sees a part of herself in all of them. Tyra tells the girls that perfect is boring and encourages them to use their differences as an asset.
Tyra informs the girls that she will be taking pictures of them, as well as doing their make-up and hair. She quickly makes designs out of black eyeliner on each model’s face and snaps shots of them. She advises the girls about the importance of making isolated movements and shows them all how to move their hips, neck and head. She then takes the girls upstairs to dance with some local entertainers and they all wear shriner’s hats with long strings attached and whip their heads around madly for fun!
After a dizzying display of dancing, the next day brings them back to the desert for a photo shoot with Nigel Barker. Nigel tells the girls that they will have to come up with a narrative for their shoot and that they will be wearing Moroccan wedding attire and posing with a male model named Younes Tazi. Younes is exotically handsome and definitely crush worthy, but none of the models seem to be able to find any real chemistry with him.
Molly is the first be photographed and is wearing a stunning white overlay with gold detailing. She talks about using Younes as ‘her prop’ and doesn’t want him to move around too much while she works. Molly has a difficult time, but manages to pull off some great shots.
Hannah struggles with trying to take the aggressiveness out of her face. Because she is determined to get a good shot, it doesn’t translate well onto film and she comes off looking angry.
Brittani immediately finds it challenging to show any kind of intimacy towards Younes and ends up bursting into tears while being critiqued by Nigel and Mr. Jay. She does end up with some great shots in spite of her penchant to be overly emotional at her shoots.
As a side note, Younes can model with me anytime…does anyone know the price of a plane ticket to Morocco?
Just before elimination Tyra talks about how she had to get sewn into her dress because her zipper broke. I have decided I now need a personal seamstress, oh wait, I have my mom for that! J
Tyra announces that Ivan Bart, Vice President of IMG Models will be joining the judging panel for this elimination. The judges think that Brittani took some nice shots, but can sometimes be difficult to photograph. Hannah’s shots are determined to be too over the top and Molly is dubbed a great photographer’s model in that she can sense what poses will look interesting. In the end it is our fair, fresh-faced Hannah who goes home, while Molly claims victory for her beautiful shots.
Tyra lets Brittani and Molly know that they will be filming a commercial, getting their Beauty In Vogue and Covergirl spreads shot and walking in a Vivienne Westwood show for the finale. How fabulous is that? I am soooo excited to find out who will win!
Join me next week for our last episode recap and an announcement of the All Star cast for Cycle 17!!!!
Until next time my Glamazons!
Cecilia J