Basic Weight & Height Requirements | Modeling

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Hi. My name is Trudi Tapscott, and I think if you're interested in modeling, the first thing that you know is that models are tall and skinny. So, the first question is, "How tall and how skinny do I have to be?" And the answer is, depending upon the type of modeling that you're doing, height is important and being skinny, in good shape and healthy are important. No one in the business that is a legitimate agent is going to tell you to starve yourself, but if you photographically, on film, don't look good, then that's something that needs to be talked about. Maybe you need to lose 5 pounds. Maybe you're retaining salt.

But, really, it goes by measurement more than weight, because it's a fit issue. So, you have to be able to fit the clothes. So, if you're not in the size that you can fit into the clothes, then the designer can't hire you because there's only one. It's not like you go to the department store and there's all sizes. There's one size and there's one look. They are trying to sell that look to all the buyers all around the world so that they can produce it. So, that's why the fashion show is six months in advance; they need to know what's going to sell, what's of interest to people, what they like.

So, that's been created and designed and it's a certain size. Height, the clothes, the length of a model, the proportion of a model is what a designer is looking for. What a casting director is looking for. So, height is important. If you're talking about shows, the reason it's important is because everyone's in a line and there's other people involved. It's not just you.

If you can be anywhere from 5"9' to 6"0' feet, that's a pretty big variation, but you're still tall. That's still taller than the average person. At least, in America, that's taller than the average person. So, modeling is not the average. You're not supposed to be average. You're supposed to be something that people look at in sort of a fantasy of what beauty is. So, you have to be thin and you have to be tall. Those are the things that matter in the business.

But you also have to be healthy. You could be a tall, thin girl, but there are thin people that look too thin. Some people, their body is naturally thin. If your body is not naturally thin, you can't starve yourself to be that skinny person. It all goes back to what type of model are you. Because if you are someone who's going model athletic clothes, then you don't want to be as skinny as the model who's modeling fashion, because you don't look necessarily athletic.

So, I think that there's two things that are not true about models when it comes to weight. And that is that they don't eat and they starve themselves. I think that they limit their intake when it's before a fashion show season. I think during show season they're so busy they don't have a lot time to eat, so they get thinner. But when they're shooting pictures, nobody wants to see someone who you can see their bones when they're shooting lingerie or bathing suits. So, it's about being a healthy, tall, thin, beautiful woman.