For the second time, I had the pleasure of modeling for a j-fashion brand brand at Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in North America. It attracts over 100,000 attendees, who descend on the Los Angeles Convention Center for a weekend of Japanese pop culture.
While Anime Expo always falls on the 4th of July weekend, the exact dates shift depending on when the holiday lands. This year, Anime Expo started on Thursday July 3rd and ran through Sunday July 6, with a weekend packed full of anime madness.
This year’s fashion show included looks from axes femme, HoneyPepperIX Apparel, Miss Candyholic, NONSENSE JAPAN, and SuperGroupies, with model and EGL superstar Rin Rin Doll as the MC. I was delighted to model for Axes Femme, especially because I didn’t know any of the brands when I applied! I own lots of clothes from this brand and love their romantic stylings!
Making the Cut
Anime Expo’s fashion show doesn’t require that you are a professional model. In fact, the majority of the people I talked to were just big anime fans! I applied to model in February via a Google Form that was posted to AX’s social media. I was notified that I had been selected by a brand in May. In addition to the show itself, AX always has a fitting session/rehearsal in the days before the convention, and in my case, my fitting was Tuesday July 1. The fitting took less than 2 hours, and included a meeting with our stylist and a quick walk down the actual run way.
It’s Showtime!
The fashion show took place on Thursday July 3, and model call time was at 6:30 AM. AX has some of the most demanding time commitments of any fashion show I’ve modeled for, so be prepared for that! In addition to getting into our looks for the fashion show, models had to arrive in time for a hair and make-up team to style everyone. I was grateful that my hair and makeup looks were relatively simple, and I was done early in the day! Other models had the team literally doing their looks in the runaway room as other models walked! There was a lot of downtime while we waited for our turn, so models resorted to eating snacks, playing card games, and handheld video games.
The fashion show was scheduled for 11:15 AM in Kentia Hall, a large venue with seating for 2,000 people. The fashion show was also streamed on Twitch and AX’s YouTube. This fashion show definitely has high production value, with an elevated stage, a professional AV team, and all of the people who make the fashion show run smoothly. Having helped out with fashion shows at a different show, I know that this is a huge undertaking, which is in no small part due to the amazing team that AX assembles.
Walking the Walk
Models were in the runway room by around 10:00 AM, practicing their walks and getting out nervous jitters backstage. There was still plenty of downtown, so models took the opportunity to take pictures of their looks (which were of course posted after the show). One of the things I really like about AX’s fashion show is that because it is streamed, there are monitors backstage so that you can see the runway. That meant that every time someone finished their walk, there was a horde of models silently cheering them on from backstage!
This year was also particularly silly because the brand NONSENSE had props to go with their looks, which were constantly getting borrowed by other models to play with backstage. The CEO of Axes Femme was so charmed by the Lance of Longinus prop that one of the Axes Femme models ended up doing their walk with the prop!
Axes Femme was the last brand to walk, so after a lot of waiting our moment to shine closed out the show. We took to the runway one last time for a final bow, and quickly made our way back upstairs to return our looks. After about 6 hours of prep and waiting, we were free to explore the convention, and enjoy the rest of our weekend!
Anime Expo is absolute madness, but it is always fun to get to spend time with other j-fashion fans and get to help make this event happen. I definitely encourage you to apply to model if you want the chance to work closely with designers and other models, because its a very memorable experience!