Vogue UK : What Really Happens At A Victoria’s Secret Casting?

The label’s creative director, Sophia Neophitou, opens up about the cutthroat process

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2012

By Dolly Jones for Vogue UK :

IT’s quite common to want to be a Victoria’s Secret model – but the idea is a less inviting one when the casting process is taken into account.”It’s quite terrifying for them,” says Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou, who has played creative director of the show for the last three years.

“They are provisionally cast by John Pfeiffer but the final decision is made by the whole team, sitting at this long table in a room with really harsh lighting and they have to walk towards us and away from us. They all have to do it – even the contracted girls – and it’s incredibly nerve-wracking for them.”

So how have the likes of Gisele, Miranda Kerr,Alessandro Ambrosio, Cara Delevingne andJourdan Dunn made the cut? “It’s about being show-ready,” explains Sophia. “It’s really like being an Olympian – they have to be in peak condition. It’s not about being thin or anything like that – it’s about being ready to perform and be the best you can be in that moment.”

Not able to reveal any details of her fourth show – that will take place in New York on November 14th – Sophia is asked to submit 12 possible themes for each one – six of which are then approved. Last year, the Degas Ballet, Dangerous Liaisons and Giffords Circus (in which Iris Palmer once rode in 2000), made the cut. “As a stylist this job takes you to a place you’d never otherwise go,” says Sophia, who also works with Roland Mouret, Anya Hindmarch, Antonio Berardi, Richard Nicoll and Elie Saab and took over the VS reins from Charlotte Stockdale and Brana Wolf before her. “It’s a real honour to follow people of such high pedigree into a job I love so much. It’s brilliant fun – just complete theatre and spectacle. You should see it backstage – it’s out of this world.”

source : http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2013/09/23/victorias-secret-model-casting—sophia-neophitou-interview