A la Mode

When Tara was approached in a bar by a group of fashion students one night, and invited to be a model in their school show she was excited at the opportunity, but had no idea what she had really agreed to. What initially sounded like an amature fun project turned out to be a fairly MAJOR event, as advertised on the website below (and all over Nagoya).

http://www.mode.ac.jp/nagoya/campuslife/2008festival.html

Upon entering the performance area it became obvious that this was no small time school show. In fact the venue was the same gymnasium where the national sumo tournament is held. A variety of design-related displays were scattered around the arena, and a small stage was brightly light in the middle.
We explored the booths for awhile before finding our seats for the show.

Tara appears!
She was easy to spot, being the only foreigner in the group of 6 models. The models circled the stage before chairs were brought on stage and they were seated to have their hair and make-up done.
Since this was a student group it was part of their project to perform under pressure.

They only had a few minutes to complete their work on the models - so this portion looked like the fashion show equivalent of an F1 pit stop.

This is Tara's patented "Yes, I'm aware that I look good, thank you."-look. Look out Zoolander!

The crew exited the stage, and the newly decorated models strutted their stuff.

"Good thing they gave me this fan, 'cause I'm damn hot!"

The crew rejoins the models on stage for a round of cheers and bows.

Off-stage a few lucky girls got their pictures taken with Tara before she was whisked off to the shower room.

Later we went home.
And that's the story of how I picked up a model at a fashion show.