Top Model's judges may want America's Next Top Model to have personality, but it's apparently not enough to make it to the finale.
ADVERTISEMENT
Annaliese Dayes, a 5' 7" 24-year-old from London, England, became the twelfth girl ousted from America's Next Top Model: British Invasion during Wednesday night's broadcast on The CW.
"I came into this competition being the presenter, the personality, the commercial girl. And the journey has just been extremely [fabulous]. I needed to hear that Kelly had changed her mind about me," Annaliese said following her ouster from the reality franchise's eighteenth edition in which seven amateur American hopefuls battle seven all-stars and former Britain's Next Top Model contestants for the grand prize.
"I feel like I tried so hard to just be like, 'Come on Kelly. Like me. Like me.' I want her to like me, and this week, I surpassed her expectations and she actually grew to like me and my zany personality, and I think that's one of the best prizes ever. I think I'm mainly proud of myself just because I think I realize now I can do a lot more than I initially thought I [could]."
Annaliese, one of the two remaining British contestants, was eliminated from the eleventh episode of America's Next Top Model: British Invasion after Top Model's judges reviewed the photos the season's remaining three finalists had taken at their eleventh photo shoot challenge of the season, which required them to pose in a lifesize bottle while appearing to be youthful and joyful for Top Model's fragrance "Dream Come True." The girls modeled for fashion photographer Jez Smith.
ADVERTISEMENT
Annaliese ended up in the bottom two alongside American contestant Laura, a 5' 10 1/2" 20-year-old from Scotia, NY.
Both girls failed to impress and inspire Top Model photo shoot director Jay Manuel and Jez during the photo shoot.
"Where's the happy!?" Jay asked.
"I'm not feeling any excitement. Come on. Just flow, get the arms in there," Jez said.
"Before we got on set, she was this bubbly vivacious girl and that all just disappeared, and I'm not really sure where it all went."
ADVERTISEMENT
"Are you seeing you dream in front of you? Is this what you'd look like if your dream came true," Jay questioned.
"No," Annaliese confirmed.
"With Annaliese, we shot over 200 frames and I thought that she was a little stiff," said Ben Bennett, founder and creative director of Hatch Beauty.
Laura had trouble channeling her girly side while wearing a frilly pink gown, because she believed herself to be an edgy and fierce model.
"Laura, you started off very dreamy and then it slowly turned into [too sexy]. The legs came up and I was like, 'Ooh, there's a stripper pole coming down in a minute,'" Jay told her.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The concept of a 'Dream Come True' is the young and being young at heart, and I think this joyousness was missing from a lot of what Laura was doing in the beginning," Ben added.
"Too much, too much bend," Jay explained. "A little more smile, a little less sexy, a little more happy."
"Remember, joyful!" Jez said. "Your dream's coming true!"
Earlier in the episode, the girls went to four different go-sees in Hong Kong in attempt to get booked for their fashion shows. Judge Kelly Cutrone told Annaliese, Laura and Sophie, a 5' 9" 21-year-old from Oxford, England, that for every go-see they booked, they'd receive 1,000 Hong-Kong dollars -- which meant the girls could earn up to 2,000 American dollars.
The three models met with designers William Tang, Gregory Derham, Henry Lau, and Marisa Zeman, and were escorted to each go-see by a male model. In the end, Laura booked two jobs, Annaliese landed three of the four and Sophie managed to book all four. As the challenge winner, Sophie received the opportunity to become the face of Zeman's new collection "Nude is Rude" and a junk boat filled with clothes from all four of the designers.
ADVERTISEMENT
After their go-sees, Laura, Sophie and Annaliese got to enjoy a night out of fun with the male models they had befriended.
Later on, the girls arrived for the eighteenth season's eleventh elimination panel where they were met by Top Model judges Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, and Kelly Cutrone, as well as guest judge Jez.
The judges first critiqued Laura's photo.
"It's gorgeous -- very, very beautiful, ethereal, feminine -- I see expression in your eyes even though you're not looking at the camera," Nigel told her.
"Personally, I think it's a beautiful photo. I think you looked like a goddess," Jez said.
"Youthful is hard. Do I think an 18-year-old girl is going to see this and say, 'I want to look like that?' No," Kelly added. "This looks like an ad for a plastic surgeon's office on Park Avenue hunny. You are embodying what every 50-year-old woman who wants to look 25 is going to buy."
"This picture is absolutely beautiful. I'd want to buy this fragrance, but I'm not the target demo. I'm the dem-mama," Tyra told her.
Annaliese's photo was then reviewed.
"It's a beautiful picture but for me, it doesn't really look like a model in the picture. Perhaps you're a tennis star who just got herself her first perfume who's in there doing her things. But the reality is, because you booked so many go-sees, that just shows the power of presence. And you have presence," Nigel explained.
"Just before you came on set, you were so vivacious and gorgeous and bubbly and I really thought you were going to be amazing. And then when you got into the bottle, you just kind of froze up and we took more captures of you than we took of anybody else. The one thing I do want to say is that you absolutely did not give up, which I have a lot of respect for," Jez said.
"You are a little muscular. I agree with Nigel on that. It looks a little tennis, but do I think this is going to make the average 18-year-old girl in America want to go out and buy this fragrance? No I do not. Does this look more youthful that Laura's? For me it does," Kelly added.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Yeah, I'm feeling a little Michelle Obama meets Venus Williams meets an ad for a catalog captured in a bottle with a little Aladdin twist. Your smile saved that picture from being disastrous," Tyra explained with a smile.
After panel critiques and the judges had time to deliberate on the girls' photos in private, Tyra and the judges called the girls back in. Tyra then revealed the models in order of the best photo to the worst of the week.
Sophie received the first call-out. Following Sophie, Tyra then revealed Annaliese and Laura were in the bottom two. Tyra then recapped both girls' issues before revealing which one would get to remain in the competition.
"Laura, the judges love that you are different. That you don't zig, you zag. But you were fired from a fashion show in Toronto because of your runway walk and the judges are very nervous that you're a one-trick pony. You can be wild, you can be out there, you can be that pirate. But when it comes time to be soft and young and sweet, you get lost," Tyra explained.
"Annaliese, you started off, I thought, as just a catalog girl and from week to week to week, started getting some of the strongest pictures in the bunch. And this is a girl that's not 5'9" but still, then she goes on go-sees, and this week, you booked three out of four shows. But what the judges are nervous about is, is it just a fun 'debbie-dozey' personality or is she a real model?"
Tyra then revealed Laura's photo, resulting in Annaliese's elimination.
"You got so far, and I didn't think you had as much potential as you do. But you're also a star, and I can tell when somebody has that thing and you have it, so go after it like crazy," Tyra told Annaliese.
The two finalists will be walking in a fashion show for Forever21 during the season finale of America's Next Top Model: British Invasion.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski