I’m not going to recap what Katie or Michael Pascua stated in the past, but I will say that Tyra has set up an almost impossible task: finding a Next Top Model who appeals to both commercial and high fashion tastes. The two call for totally different skill sets: commercial models promote the product through their personalities whereas non-commercial models put the product before themselves.
Recent model history backs up the dichotomy. Catwalk models Iman and Naomi didn’t appeal to the mainstream until later in their careers. Similarly, Nikki Taylor and Tyra Banks, two straight up commercial, corn-fed looking models, never really crossed over into the high fashion plane. However, this year’s prize package required the finalists to embody what tenured models took time to develop. So, who best combines both after thirteen short weeks?
The Model Round-Up
Chelsey
Pros: She’s comfortable in her skin, has a great personality, takes good photos, and is very pretty. She also has knowledge of the business due to five years of experience and appeals to the American commercial market.
Judges’ Thoughts: According to Nigel, she’s someone you know will always deliver.
Cons: She has a conventional look and at age twenty-three, has fewer years left in her than slightly younger models. She sometimes lacks the ability to view her weaknesses.
My Thoughts: Honestly, I’m not a Chelsey fan. While a lot of her confessionals complimented Ann’s beauty, she spent more time highlighting her strengths over Ann’s, to the point of desperation. She slightly reminded me of Natalie Mejia from Girlicious or even Janice Dickinson. Although driven, both women seemingly care more about fame than anything else. The police arrested Natalie on a cocaine charge in the spring while Janice . . . I don’t need to say anything else. My fear is Chelsey’s obsession with the modeling world’s fast pace could make her another reality sideshow.
Ann
Pros: Ann has naturally gorgeous eyes, beautiful hair, and long legs. She also appeals to the high fashion market through her ability to assume any personae. She’s a virtual chimera.
Cons: She’s very awkward. Seriously.
Judges’ Thoughts: The second photographer said he loved working with Ann, but felt she was less commercially-oriented.
My Thoughts: Ann’s amazing photos have won me over, but I also love her modesty and honesty. While that makes her vulnerable to cattiness, it also means she won’t place modeling first and will remain grounded. While Ann could do better with her walk and personality, (which a little coaching could fix), she naturally embodies the high fashion aura.
The CoverGirl Challenge
I’m glad they decided to do voiceover commercials to reduce the awkwardness.
Judges’ thoughts: While Ann appeared slightly more natural in the commercial, Chelsey’s photo was better. Although Roberto Cavalli inexplicably liked Ann’s hard look, Tyra chided Ann for not understanding the needs of commercial modeling. All judges liked that the women worked well together.
Verdict: A Tie. No clear victor.
The Walkway
Outside of cycle fourteen winner Krista’s fierce walk, NONE of the other ANTM models (including the finalists and the models they brought back) had a decent walk. Sure, my experience doesn’t extend beyond two years in junior high, but come on girls, BRING IT!
Judges’ Thoughts: Tyra felt Chelsey looked for the camera during her turn while others thought Ann looked scared.
Verdict: Both their runway walks sucked. No clear victor.
The Final Review
This was an intense judges’ table and it’s the first time I didn’t feel they filled it with BS. There’s more at stake this year. Plus, these women represent two sides of two very different coins. Cavalli put it best — if this were Italian fashion choose Ann, if it’s straight up American fashion, choose Chelsey. It’s a shame they can’t split up the prize.
Verdict: So, the winner is . . . . if you haven’t already guessed\watched … Ann!
My Thoughts: Honestly, I think the best person won. Even if she were 19 all over, I don’t think Chelsey would have received too many callbacks for IMG go-sees, despite her winning personality. While she has polish, that came from her time in the field, and Ann could smooth out her rough edges given less time. Although Chelsey probably would have won in a CoverGirl-only cycle. In the end, the judges let the needs of the prize dictate the winner and I agree.
Notes:
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Dec 02, 2010 @ 09:09 EST5EDT
Clearly I’m not in touch with what makes a person model material these days, because I think they both are quite unattractive. They both have beautiful eyes and Chelsey’s got great bone structure, but they both have hideous mouths and hair — am I awful?
I prefer a full, voluptuous mouth (real, not botoxed) and with their freakishly long necks and all that crazy hair, they might as well be Barbie dolls. How is that a look to aspire to?
Wow, Deb, you’re harsh. I actually think both women are beautiful. But, I think Chelsey’s hair is what happens to most models eventually. Although I loved the year Whitney won, everyone claimed Tyra wanted a plus winner, even though Whitney consistently took awesome photos and had the better runway walk.
On a side tangent, I felt bad for Chelsey. She really wanted it, but if she went the straight-up catalog route i.e. J.Crew, Target, JC Penney’s, (and, dare I say it, Sears) while using Victoria’s Secret as a reach, I think she could have a modestly stable career.
She does have something special, but considering Italian Vogue was the main prize, IMG’s fashion site lists an international focus and CoverGirl barely uses the ANTM models, her look just didn’t work for this year and, sadly, she lacked the awareness to see that.
I should say that I haven’t seen the show at all and I’m only going by the pics in your post. Are those good representations of their looks? I didn’t mean to be harsh — I said what I thought their pretty features were. People become more attractive (or less) when you know their personalities and I know nothing about either of these girls. Maybe I’d think they were lovely if I watched the show.
I don’t think you were harsh in a bad way, but a good way, I should’ve included a smiley face. I’m just shocked to hear an American woman *not* coo over their physical beauty :) The photos are pretty decent representations of their looks. And, personality-wise, Ann comes off as better.
I started re-watching ANTM for cycle 15, but I didn’t watch steadily. For the episodes I caught, Ann’s photos always stood out. But, in the finale, Ann’s humility stood out, whereas Chelsey’s personality came off as slightly desperate. Maybe the producer’s fed her leading questions, but after the thirty-minute mark I didn’t think she needed to continue listing why she was better than Ann.