Modelling in Seoul: Week 4
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Saturday 21st March - Friday 27th March
Week 4 in Seoul was the most eventful and jam-packed so far! I wandered through temples, humiliated myself at castings, did a super exciting campaign job, and cried over fried chicken.
The week started with me and Aoife headed to Bongeunsa Temple in Gangnam, and when a temple is involved there’s always fun.
Bongeunsa Temple & The beauty of Buddhism
Every single time I step foot in a Buddhist setting, shrine, temple, mountain, country, whatever - I feel this otherworldly sense of peace. I first experienced it in Japan and was immediately, profoundly moved. Korea isn’t affiliated with one religion anymore, but many people are still Buddhist so these incredible temples remain.
Bongeunsa was much bigger than I expected, full of twists and turns, traditional Hanok buildings, colourful lanterns blowing wistfully in the wind, stray cats wandering around, and cherry blossoms just beginning to bloom.
All of it eventually led to the main event - the 23 metre Buddha statue which genuinely took my breath away. So much so that Aoife said I must have been a monk in a previous life, which I was thrilled by until she followed it up with the suggestion that my expansive wardrobe is karmic compensation for my past-life minimalism. Although I can’t fault her for that.
Aoife’s family is visiting next week and we will definitely be visiting again because I would be more than happy to experience it again, and again, and again.
Shopping in Seong-Su
Later we headed to Seong-Su, Seoul’s infamous shopping area, where after rummaging through endless underground vintage racks I somehow found a Burberry shirt for just 30,000 won (about £15). Obviously I caved. We then went to Nyu Nyu, basically Korea’s Primark but suspiciously better quality, where I filled an entire basket only to discover there was a strict three-item try-on rule. Brilliant.
We were determined to secure Otto for dinner which is arguably THE best Chinese fried chicken on Earth - only to discover it had closed. I immediately crouched on the pavement in despair. Thankfully we redeemed ourselves later in the week by locating another branch and wolfing down a full portion each.
That chicken was desperately needed after Monday’s casting antics…
Week 4 Casting anecdotes (Humiliation Rituals)
This entire casting segment needs to be prefaced by the fact that Aoife and I decided to do a spectacularly poorly planned foot peel the previous Friday. Having not read the instructions, we didn’t realise the peeling would start three days later.
So when Monday rolled around and we had back-to-back castings, our feet were shedding skin at an alarming rate. Every office we entered became a trail of foot flakes which was deeply mortifying.
As if that wasn’t enough humiliation, the casting straight after required us to be filmed for instagram reels. I was asked to enthusiastically discuss imaginary oatmeal, pretend to chat to friends about activewear, and seductively lunge towards the camera while describing my morning routine. I have never been so uncomfortable. I am not an actress. Please stop making models act!
For the majority of the week it was just me and Aoife at castings so we spent each day tag teaming in and out of the changing rooms - which are usually just a sample cupboard with a very visible CCTV camera pointed directly at you! Speaking of, another casting from the week had two cameras! So cheeky, like do you really need a front and back view?!?!
Fortunately, free snacks at later castings - biscuits, peach iced tea, and aggressively crumbly crackers (spilled everywhere by Aoife, of course) helped restore morale. But it quickly got brought back down by more chaos at Friday's casting for a shoe company…
... Bear in mind I still have skin peeling off my feet. I was made to stand barefoot while they took hundreds of images of my feet from multiple different angles.
I just know they’re gonna be zooming in on every single detail and analysing why I have skin flaking off of my foot, I definitely cannot be a foot model. But fingers crossed nonetheless!
Awful timing.
Juggling lemons for a Summer Campaign Shoot
Despite all this madness, I did have one shoot this week, and it ended up being one of my favourites so far. It was for a major Korean brand’s summer campaign in a huge five-storey house converted into a studio, and as the over-thinker gal I am I arrived, as per usual, with a slight sense of anxiety.
Because sometimes you walk in and there’s this subtle moment where you feel like they’re thinking, “This isn’t what we ordered.” With the language barrier it’s almost impossible to know if that’s real or just in your head. Thankfully, this time my mind was put at ease very quickly because the team were genuinely lovely.
Hair and makeup took 0.5 seconds which sucks because it’s usually one of my fave parts! I find it weirdly hypnotic and very calming. It reminds me of being in primary school assembly when someone would always be playing with your hair. So after a lick of colour corrector to cover these intense eye bags we were ready to roll!
Pretty quickly I realised it was going to be a slow (but fun) day. There were 26 looks planned and each one took around 40 minutes because the shoot involved both photography and full videography. So just as you finished posing for stills, you then had to immediately switch into performance mode.
By the end of the day I’d somehow evolved from model into influencer, actress, voice-over artist… and, debatably, juggler.
Yes, juggler. At one point they had me sitting in the minuscule pool (genuinely about five inches deep) … juggling lemons. My toes were numb but anything for the shot, I suppose.
As per usual, there had been absolutely no mood-board or real explanation beforehand, which always makes me laugh slightly because the model is the one expected to execute the entire vision!!
Thankfully they seemed happy with my posing, and the constant variation actually meant the day flew by. When else in life are you going to hide behind trees, balance on chairs overlooking Seoul or improvise endlessly for a camera crew? Probably never. So I’m trying very hard to just take it all in.
By 6pm we hadn’t even completed the final outfit and ended up finishing on 24. After the photography wrapped, the videography team properly took over - which is where things became scary once again…
I was made to hop, skip, and run into frame, enthusiastically talk about how much I loved the outfits, dance around, and finally record a full voice-over into a microphone that will apparently be layered over a compilation of campaign videos. I’m fairly certain the content itself was questionable at best, but they seemed very pleased - I suspect the British accent was doing most of the heavy lifting.
This whole voice recording situation was a first for both me and my agency. Even my translator was stumped but it’s brilliant news for my portfolio!
My translator later mentioned that shoots with full video teams can sometimes lead to billboards. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself, but I would combust on the spot to tick that off the bucket list. Even if the footage is just me fumbling lemons in a paddling pool.
What made the job special was how calm and enjoyable it felt. The photographer and I communicated entirely through high-fives and a shared playlist of Drake, Yeat, Don Toliver and SZA - ironic considering I was dressed like an elegant mother of five.
The brand itself had nice designs but the quality was not matching the price tag! Everything was made of chiffon or polyester and at one point a button literally fell off mid-shot and had to be reattached using blu-tack. It was like marketing satin as silk - but everyone was buying it.
Still, overpricing aside, everyone was happy! There’s something deeply satisfying about working with a kind team who trust you to perform. I felt so relaxed during some of the filming I found myself staring out the window thinking about my Year 6 residential trip - something I haven’t thought about in years.
And in that moment I was beyond grateful to have had the time for that memory to come up again because it left me feeling unexpectedly nostalgic and oddly content.
A surreal, exhausting, lemon-filled day… but a beautiful one nonetheless.
I've been here a month?!?!
Somehow amongst the homesickness, business, and fun, four weeks have passed! I’m absolutely baffled because it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here a month but I definitely have! Four weeks of my ten in Seoul are done.
I miss my family very much, but I’m very settled here. I've got my routines, favourite spots, and it helps that Aoife is here with me as well. This time next week I’ll be half-way through which is just madness!
Bring on week 5 - and as ever, see it all on IG first:
IG: @itswithlovemimi
TikTok: @mimipiqua
With love,
Mimi x
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