Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Mexico's Next Top Model Cycle 1

Mexico's Next Top Model Cycle 1 is a reality show hosted by supermodel Elsa Benitez, which aims to find the next top fashion model.
The winner received a US$ 100,000 contract, management and representation by Shock Modeling and a photo shoot for the cover and a six-page spread within Glamour magazine. Also a trip to San Francisco, a trip to London by Sedal and $20.000 by Sears.
The cycle features 13 contestants. The destination during this cycle was Ixtapa, Mexico. The winner was 18 year old Mariana Bayón from Torreón, Coahuila.
The 20 semifinalists came to the Puebla's hotel "La Purificadora" and then they met Oscar Madrazo, Jo Lance and the famous top model and host Elsa Benitez. They did a photo shoot and showed his coach Oscar Madrazo how was their runway. They later went to meet individually with the panel of judges (Elsa Benitez, Oscar Madrazo and Jo Lance) to show how was their personality, and emerging conflicts among girls, which the judges said was the excess of Ana Laura and discrimination that Silvia suffered as a child for being Mulata. Then the girls got together and Oscar Madrazo told them he had envelopes with a picture of each of the 20 girls where it said if they were accepted or not, in this round 3 girls were eliminated.
After this, the girls celebrate the birthday of Nohemí and the next day they have their first photoshoot, and that will determine who will be the 13 finalists and who will go to live at the house in Mexico City. The girls were photographed as angels and then the judges deliberated and chose. In this second round, 4 more girls were eliminated.

The girls arrive at their new home in Mexico City and receive their first Elsa's Mail that tells them to prepare to leave early the next morning. The girls chose their beds and Yatzil is left out without a bed to sleep on and this flares a dispute between paulina, Andrea and Silvia. In the end, Ana Laura decides to share her bed with Yatzil (as seen at the beginning of episode 4).
The next day the girls came to Sears next to the Palace of Fine Arts, where they met Elsa, who introduces them to Glenda Reyna, the panel judge which gives the girls a critique, one by one, about their dress and overall appearance. Mariana received a lot of positive feedback from Glenda, she was praised for gaving the height, body figure and skin of a model, while Nohemí was criticized for being too short and Silvia for having a short torso. Then Elsa introduces Edgar Smolensky, Sears representative, who introduces the girls to the challenge of the week, which is to dress appropriately, with exclusive brands in just 10 minutes. Ana Laura and Paulina were criticized for their bad choices and lack of combining accessories while Silvia was severely criticized for not using her imagination and the fact that she stole the complete outfit from a mannequin, but ultimately Cecilia wins the challenge. Her prize is the outfit she chose, and three pieces chosen by the rest of the bunch.

In the photo shoot this week, Oscar Madrazo introduces girls to the photographer Tito Trueba and three dogs who would pose in the photo, where they have to portray a dog walker in sexy lingerie. Some girls struggle with handling three dogs while exposing their semi nude bodies on set.

At the panel of judges, Mauricio Olvera was the guest judge. María Fernanda, Veronica, Cecilia, Andrea and Ana Laura received good reviews, especially Veronica for showing a sexy sensual side while still remaining confident and Kathya and Yatzil fall into the bottom two: the first because she looks overposed, while the other for her lack of poses. At the end, Kathya was eliminated for showing vulgarity in her pose.