Wanna Be On Top?
Last night Canada’s Next Top Model crowned their latest cover girl: Country beauty, Meaghan Waller. Well, she isn’t exactly from the country, but she is from Winnipeg – a few time zones away from Fashion central. After arriving in Toronto wearing braces, dorky cute glasses and sporting mousy brown curls, the 19 year old was duly transformed into the platinum blonde glam girl! She ended up wowing us all.
With only three standing, the show’s video editors and sound technicians worked their hardest to keep us all guessing. The producers must have loved Nikita’s melodrama and Mean Girl confessions, which caused many reviews and discussion about the series. Yet Nikita’s notoriety wasn’t enough to convince the judges that she was the nation’s next top model. Linsay’s expert walk and Meaghan’s Cover Girl looks ultimately secured their places in the final two.
The tie breaker, in my opinion, was when Susie Sheffman, fashion director of FASHION, remarked that she really wanted the yellow dress on the cover of her magazine and Meaghan was the only model who could fit in it. The winner of the show is expected to make a career after the cameras stop rolling, so no matter how brilliantly Lindsay worked the runway or Nikita’s photos translated to print, the next top model had to be the ideal blank canvas for fashion shows and magazines alike, and those canvases usually come in size 0 or less. Hence, petite 5’9.5” Meaghan taking the crown. I do believe Meaghan is the most commercial and that her doe eyed nymph look is very ‘now’, but being able to wear the dresses your clients give you for the cover of magazines is a requisite, and that is what I think tipped the scale. Maybe in Cycle 18 CNTM can have the novelty size 8 contestant like America’s Next Top Model, but for now the Canadian series wants to highlight the traditional looks for the runway. Don’t get me wrong, I was very pleased that Meaghan won, as she was a favorite of mine since the brace face days. I do look forward to seeing if she lands some headline shows or editorial spreads. To catch the moment of victory click on the video below and to read her interview after the win go here.
Maybe she was destined to win? On the cover of Fashion magazine that featured all 12 contestants, she just happened to be majestically perched above the entire pack. As they say, cream always rises to the top, and Meaghan, after a rocky start, continued to rise week after week. She certainly was the cream of the Canadian crop in Cycle 3 and deserves to be proud of how far she has come. After this grueling stint in TO, I bet she’s singing ‘Na na na na na na! all the way home.