Preparing for Fashion Week

London Fashion Weeks kicks off this week, and one of our bloggers Marieke happens to not only be a model, but a pretty big deal in the modelling world! Represented by one of London's leading agencies Profile and also internationally by Women Management (oh yea!) she tells us all the inside on how a model prepares for fashion week!

(Marieke!)

Fashion week: the two words that some models dread most and other positively revel in. It’s our busiest month of the year, and each model has their own way of preparing for it. For some, crazy diets and crazy amounts of exercise is their forte – for me, my life just gets that bit more hectic, that little bit more stressful, that bit more exciting. Fashion Week is my escape from the everyday boredom of living at home, going to school and doing the same thing every single day, which is why I tend to fit into that group of excited (albeit ‘young’) models who rock up to castings in plain, non-designer clothes (dressed in all-black: it’s basically our uniform), with smiles on our faces and a brand-new, not-yet-battered portfolio in our arms.

As you can see by this snapchat (taken last week while on a Drama trip to London), my eating habits around Fashion Week doesn’t change much (if anything, it becomes worse.. Oops!). I am definitely NOT the person to use as a good example of a healthy diet! Of course, I could get up 10 minutes earlier every morning to make myself a juice as a snack during the day... But it’s so much simpler to just stick a piece of bread in the toaster, and enjoy some toast with a cup of tea!

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These girls have inspired me to be fun when having Street Style photographs taken! 

That said, when I am prancing around London, being in 12 places at once, trying to avoid the tube (stupid strikes), and attempting to look pretty all day long (as if! With this weather, I’ll be looking like a wet rat all day), having time to stop and have lunch can be tricky. That’s why, before a day of castings, I put together a ‘snack bag’, courtesy of my mother. These tend to include dried fruit (pineapple and mango are my favourites), raisins, lots of cashew nuts, and (most importantly!) a few chocolate buttons to keep my spirits high. And then, of course a bottle of water (this is a constant necessity in my handbag) and a pot of Vaseline (not for eating, unfortunately). This means that I have easy snacks all day long that are full of good vitamins and natural oils! I also stop at fresh food markets whenever I see them and buy some fruit to munch while I’m sat on a long long drive from Zone 7 into Zone 1.

Travelling around London means I have a lot of spare time on my hands, and what better than to play Flappy Bird and Candy Crush all day long? Just kidding! I will actually be doing something productive with my time. Rather than sitting, twiddling my thumbs and people-watching, I’ll pick up a newspaper and learn a bit about the world, or bring an intellectual book with me while I’m travelling. At the moment, I’m reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and even though it’s well written, it’s just not my kind of book... It looks like I’ll be re-reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green again this year! (Last year, I did just that and ended up crying on the Overground... Not a good look)

Please drop me an email at Marieke@wonderlandcloting.com , and let me know some things that you do whilst travelling! I need some inspiration! Check back soon for all the inside goss on #LFW! 

You can follow Marieke on Instagram and Twitter to follow her #LFW adventures! Be sure to check the tags for more posts on Marieke's model and travelling life!