Earlier today, we found out about top American model Ava Smith’s experiences on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week and promised we’d return with some revealing stories from behind the scenes; from castings to fittings to dealing with designers criticising your body…

As part of their series ‘How Fashion Week Gets Made’, Fashionista asked Ava how it feels being cast in shows and how she deals with the rejection that’s an inevitable part of being a model: “Absolutely no one wants to feel left out. But it happens and you learn not to take it personally. Seasons change, looks change. One minute you’re in, the next you’re out. It’s the beauty of fashion…it has a short attention span, but easily grabbed.”

Continuing, she spoke about what a typical casting session is like in preparation for NYFW; something the models at Talent Management were intrigued to hear about. “Lots of waiting around,” she said. “It can be very crowded during fashion week. Timing is everything, it’s minutes to hours. Meeting the client is actually quite quick, with them trying to learn a little bit about what makes you, you, and of course how you rock the runway.”

After a successful casting comes the fitting, which Ava describes as boring but a much needed calm in the storm: “Sometimes [fittings] can be a little boring, depends. I like boring, sometimes those 15 minutes of quiet are much needed with the chaos of shows.”

During fittings, designers often comment on body proportions and garment fit, which some models may find leads to insecurities, but not Ava. Judging by what she told Fashionista, it seems this young lady has a good head on that supermodel body of hers: “I can see how [comments] may [make you insecure], but I don’t think of it that way. We come in so many shapes and sizes and colours and I try to always remember just to embrace my own.”

Talent Management thinks that’s great advice and looks forward to seeing the shots of Ava in action from this past week!