I posted the same question to photographers...
Now is your turn!....

I have told the story about how I should have started modelling before, but it bears repeating for this discussion today. I still regret this, over 40 years later.  Let this be a warning to young models who don't have courage, but want to do something. I say just go with it!  If you fail to reach out for your dreams, they can pass you by in a heartbeat.

I was always very tall and painfully thin, shooting up to 5'8" by age 11, totally flat chested as a teen, under 100 pounds and finally up to nearly 110 but people always told me I was really pretty and should be a model.  During the time I was in high school I took several modelling classes at various agencies but never did much modelling other than in class or pageants they put on, where the girls usually did swimsuit (bikini) modelling.  Back in those days one of the things they made us do in class was runway practice in our underwear with a stack of books on our head, supposedly to learn perfect posture.

People who were there told me I was pretty, and had a great figure even though I was still flat chested and had never worn a bra other than for modelling class. I simply didn't need one being 32AA.  I never dated in high school either, because I was too shy and didn't see any reason to.

Not long after graduating from high school, one of my two best girl friends was asked by a man she worked with in an office if she would model in the nude for him.  He had just purchased a new camera and other equipment and wanted to learn to photograph nudes. He told her that she should bring along a girl friend (yes they had escorts back in the early 1970's) who could also model with her. She invited me, but I just couldn't bring myself to completely undress in front of a stranger and let him take pictures of my naked body even though she knew him and said he was a nice person and would have been right next to me the entire time. I was too shy and also worried if my parents found out what they would have thought, and it wouldn't have been good.

So I declined to go, and our other best girl friend went with her instead. She did decide to model with the first girl, although she told me later that she kept her underpants on the entire time he was taking pictures.  She didn't tell me anything else and never offered to show me any pictures. Our other girl friend did show them to me a couple of weeks later, and they were totally beautiful and tastefully done. Immediately I regretted not having gone, but I still knew I couldn't have enjoyed it or relaxed enough to get naked in front of a stranger. But I wanted beautiful pictures of my unclothed body so badly after seeing what they had done and consider this incident as a total failure on my part to work up the courage to just be myself.

It was a decade and a half later before I did my first real modelling, for a nude life drawing group at age 35.

Crickets

Every single one is a failure. I walk into agency castings and flunk every single one.

So far I haven't really had any big failures (pfewwww), not more than me thinking 'I wish I had brought that particular item/clothing with me'. Or wore socks that left marks on my ankles... (that's one thing I will never do again)
So let's keep it that way!

But I do have one very very big regret.... And that is not having started modelling earlier!
Because now I'm too old for anything (well, maybe not commercial, but I like fashion more..).
I've always wanted to, but my parents weren't really enthousiastic about the idea. 'You can never be a topmodel, it certainly is not a carrier-option. All those models are too 'flat' and 'square' and skinny and there is too much competition and hate, etc, etc..' Also no time, too low self-esteem and some other things along the way.
Now my parents are coming round a bit and getting more excited when I let them see new pics from shoots, and my sister too. She shoots her cosplays.
I really like to model! Meeting new & nice people, get creative together and deliver something beautiful, what's not to like?

I feel sort of like - overall, in the grand scheme of things - I was probably a failure because I never had any sort of publication that "mattered" as an arts model, beyond photographers self-publishing coffeetable books. I had web features as a fetish model, but that's a whole different thing, and I never cared nearly as much about that sort of content. I had some stuff in gallery shows, mostly in other countries.

In general,  if I'd started modeling a couple of years earlier, and had a breast augmentation, I could have been quite successful as a glamour model - in the sense that I would have probably had a few good publications to be proud of in later years. I didn't even figure out that I was pretty until I was nearly 23, so there's that...

It's *slightly* possible that I could have still done that had I marketed myself a bit differently between 2008 and 2010, but I knew nothing about marketing then and just did what felt right. Total mistake.

Every "failure" has lead to other opportunities, so I don't like the word failure

I must say though that February I'm posing for a bunch of long portrait classes at 9 in the morning... And I am not a morning person... I anticipate much butt clenching to try and keep my eyes open ;_____;

Two big failures come to mind and they are both my worst "walks" in a fashion shows which both happened in Manhattan in 2013 in front of someone who had the potential to allow me to do more shows. Grr! ! Argh. Still that was also directly related to my other failure in the last two years of modeling and that is travelling long distances by air, being underrested and overworked. Multiple legs on planes just makes me bloated and swell now but didn't used to, (maybe I was just younger or maybe I'd never done so much flying but, it happened sometimes when I flew out of Alaska.)
I'm so glad to be in the lower 48 again.
Jen

This question, and reading the replies to it, makes me wonder if I even qualify as a model to the people on this site.  I've never come close to being published, didn't start until I was a 37 year old single mother, and hardly ever do photo shoots that I get paid for.  Yet, modeling has been my only job for the last six and a half years.  But I'm one of those invisible art school models.

Sorry, I can't think of a single failure I've had as a model.  I try my ass off all the time.

My biggest failure was for a show from a designer. There were all these Misses and pageant queens with great smiles, and there I was with a more androgyn look and only experience with a neutral face and catwalk-walk.

We were suppose to walk gracefully and smiley and I thought I looked very smiley (at least I tried) but when I saw the photos I looked so grumpy, and it seemed like I hardly smiled, especially next to those misses who are very comfortable to smile like crazy on stage.

Later, I appologized to the designer, saying that I tried to do what he asked me to do, but that I did find it hard to do and that it is not really my thing.

The most biggest failure i had actually turned out to be somewhat good in the end?..

I took a trip to Singapore in 2013 and i should of did my background check on a photographer at the time. Whilst i was talking to a local photographer about my up coming schedule, i told him about a particular photographer i was to shoot with the following day, he said to me.. that the photographer i was going to shoot with had a bad reputation and was listed as one of top 10 people to avoid, knowing this i couldn't go through with it, but i couldn't just cancel on short notice even if he was Singapore's top 10 photographers to avoid.. With the information on hand i still proceeded with the shoot. (it was a group shoot as he was an organiser/photographer) I met some lovely shooters on the day and still keep in contact with them.

edited: also why i couldnt cancel at short notice as this was a paid shoot also. I made sure i was paid properly the right and agreed amount & we sat down prior to the shoot what the agreed shoot was and want i stated i wouldn't do. Which turned out okay in the end.

Camera found her, then drops her too.

http://www.foxsports.com/buzzer/story/s … ces-071114

They are all learning experiences. I prefer to focus on the positive.

I forgot my shoes once.

I've been doing this a long time, but I can think of a few situations I consider failures.  They were all ultimately things beyond my control, but it was still hard not to beat myself up about them emotionally.

I was in Massachusetts on a shoot one day and had to be back in NYC for another shoot the next.  Both were booked through the same agency.  It had been snowing all day.  While waiting at the buss station in Mass, they cancelled all buses (and trains, and planes) until the next morning due to the weather.  I had to call up my booker and explain there was no way I would be able to make it back for the NYC shoot.  She was really angry, and I was dropped from the agency when my contract was up.

I was doing a 3 week long pose for an art school, M-F 4 hours a day.  It was a standing pose, and the first week went fine, but over the weekend I was running an errand in a pair of flip flops, and some asshole somehow managed to step on and break my outer three toes.  I could walk if I wrapped my foot, but I couldn't stand on it for 4 hours straight, and had to switch to a seated pose.  That school hasn't hired me since.

I answered a casting for a week long trade show job with a lingerie company.  They were specifically casting someone with my bra size (32E/DDD).  I showed up for the first day of the job, and the client handed me a bra sized...36D.  Obviously it didn't fit, I was fired, and I went home and cried for the rest of the day because I still felt like it was my fault somehow.

I answered a casting on MM this past year that made no mention of height or measurements, from a photographer who had a portfolio full of glamour models who were clearly not fashion agency standard.  My stats are very clearly listed both here, and on my website, and in my many photos it is obvious I am not fashion agency standard in height or measurements.  When I showed up at the studio, this photographer was shocked I wasn't 5'9 (he needed someone who was apparently), accused me of having lied somehow (?), told me I wasn't a real model, and generally spoke to me in the most insulting and condescending way I have ever been spoken to in my life.  I had to fight him for a kill fee, then took a week off of shooting because my confidence was so badly shaken.

Well that was fun!

@ Victoria: Holy, moly ... you are beautiful!

I had a fashion show for a swimwear/ lingerie brand in Sydney 2014. They wanted us spray- tanned, but i didn't listen very well and missed the part where you shouldn't wear deodorant while getting the spray - tan done.
I came to the show with green - ish  underarms and feet ( yes, in Australia you have to use feet deodorant to survive the summer).

They tried to fix it with makeup but it was just the most embarrassing moment ever.

My first photoshoot in Dallas. I showed up for an underwear shoot and I asked before if I could get a good headshot for my port and the photographer said yes. The shoot was not very good. I was the second model in the line and he did not know how to use lighting indoors. Just after I got done with the underwear poses the owner of the studio came who was experienced with lighting and started coaching the current photographer on how to use it. So all the models after me got awesome shots and I couldn't stand my shots but pretended to be nice. He took a picture of my face and "lost" that photo even though it was on the same hard drive as my other photos he gave me. You could say my spirit was injured cause I never drove back to Dallas for any further photo shoots.

I shot with one photographer on a modeling trip to the Bay Area, and the shoot was amazing! We were so excited about that shoot that we immediately scheduled another one in 2 days. I simply assumed that he'll pay my same rate, and I failed to discuss the payment with him... The shoot was over, he shook my hand and drove away leaving me without my $300... I missed out on 2 paid shoots on that day in order to work with him!

I tried to collect the payment by sending him polite emails, but never got a single reply...nor the photos!

I learned my lesson and I now ALWAYS discuss my fee beforehand.

Btw, I don't consider this a "failure". It was a great learning experience. I treat all "failures" as an opportunity to learn something and become better at things.

Ha!

Walking in at 6am to a huuuuge location, tired, wearing glasses and no make up. Got mistaken for techincal staff.

Yeah....


A week earlier I was in similar attire and the hair stylist asked me... if I was the MUA.

Bottom line: avoid early morning jobs

A couple years ago, I (very briefly) dated a photographer on this site, at least a year before I started doing this. I came across a Facebook conversation he'd had with a close friend of mine, in which he stated that I "wouldn't make a good model" and that "no one would want to shoot me with THAT hair." That was pretty much the end of that lapse in judgment.