Wheaton resident bounced from 'Top Model'
The “fiercely real” confidence that Wheaton resident Kasia Pilewicz used to make it into the Top 5 of “America's Next Top Model” seemed to disappear Wednesday.
Fashion icon Tyra Banks noticed and the 27-year-old, plus-sized model became the first eliminated after the show moved its base to Morocco.
“What's up with the girl that we saw in the magazines taking some beautiful photos already?” Banks asked after revealing Pilewicz would be the next model sent home. “Why does that confidence go back and forth?”
The loss of confidence was surprising for Pilewicz, who modeled professionally even before the show's 16th cycle began.
But once this week's episode started, she seemed a little off and the reason was obvious. After struggling to fit into clothing for a brief fashion walk, the model was visibly shaken.
“I know a lot of European designers use plus-sized models but I just got this awful feeling of others thinking, ‘Why is she even here?'” she said on the show. “It sucks. I don't know what else to say. It still hurts. It chips away at my confidence a little.”
Despite her shaken confidence, she performed admirably and seemed to hide her disappointment well, even drawing praise for being the only model to pack heels to the photo shoot.
“It's the ABCs of going out as a model,” she said of carrying heels to fashion shoots. “I have more life experience and sometimes I'm shocked at the stuff they don't know.”
The whirlwind ride has been a blast for the St. Francis High School graduate, who relocated to New York to pursue her modeling dream in 2007. In an email interview with the Daily Herald, she said she would use the feedback she received on the show in her career.
“It was fabulous to be praised by Tyra and know you're doing something right,” she said. “But I also felt really blessed to hear her criticisms because that gives me something to work and improve on. The same goes for (former Vogue editor) Andre Leon Talley.”
While two of the final four contestants were embroiled in constant drama — at least as it appeared in the edited episodes — Pilewicz said she made a conscious effort to stay out of the fray.
“I understand how emotions can get the best of you sometimes, and I do feel for the younger girls on the show who haven't really been in professional settings like the shoots and don't know how closely people are watching every move you make,” she said. “I'm always hyper-aware and hypersensitive to my environment, so I pick up on when it's OK to be silly and crazy on a job, and when there are times to be more serious and professional.”
As she made her way to the Top 5, Pilewicz was constantly held up as a role model for other plus-sized girls. But some insecurities resurfaced later in this week's episode, when a photo shoot with a camel and renowned photographer Michael Woolley did not go as Pilewicz had hoped. The photographer ended up choosing just one of her shots for the judges.
That photo was chosen as one of the two worst of the photo shoot, earning her a meeting in front of Tyra with Newport Beach, Calif., native Alexandria Everett, who was embroiled in the cycle's most-heated conflict along with Brittani Kline. Pilewicz was praised before she was told her run was over.
“Here is a woman who stands for a positive message, but she does not have that confidence to match up with this gorgeous body,” Banks told Pilewicz after she revealed that Kasia was heading home.
“I didn't think I was going home,” Pilewicz said. “It's a huge accomplishment but I know I could have done better, that is what is killing me. But it's not over, it's just a bump in the road for me.”
It was an attitude she displayed in the interview earlier in the week.
“To become a household name as a model is so difficult these days and that's one of the great things this show has given me,” she said. “I know I'm going to use this experience to take my career to the next level ... and to keep building and growing as a model and actress.”