I thought it was going to be easy – billeted in a first-rate hotel, feasting with the brand’s top honchos, sitting on a comfortable chair with freshly-brewed coffee and pica-pica constantly being offered by butlers, while model wannabes walked down a ramp to about two meters towards me and my fellow screeners: Ben Chan, Miguel Pastor, talent manager Douglas Quijano, writer Allan Diones and Ray Lañada, all ready to be scrutinized from hair to pelvis to toenails. It wasn’t quite so.
Our first stop was Davao. If you happen to be within my age bracket, most of us in beauty, fashion and entertainment still refer to Davao as Margarita Moran—Floirendo country, unlike the younger ones nowadays who have started associating it with Dawn Zulueta-Lagdameo.
Well, Davao was refreshing – serene and slow-paced, and for some reason, that particular Tuesday was slower than usual, as only about fortysomething hopefuls came to the Marco Polo for their Bench go-see.
From amateur ramp models to swimming pool lifeguards and OFWs currently on vacation, we had a good mix of aspirants. I guess one particular guy was perhaps so nervous because these were what he wrote on his application form when asked about sizes: Shoes: black. Shirt: brown.
We finished quite early, and short-listed about 10 aspirants. Yes, the lifeguard got in, and so with his look-alike hunk who patronizes body-piercing. The OFW-on-vacation wasn’t as lucky though.
We flew to Cebu the following day expecting a longer screening session so Cebu Waterfront Lahug general manager Marco Protacio and Jojo Liamson of Bench made sure our stay was stress-free.
In Cebu, we were joined by top lawyer Joseph Gonzalez, Jon Hall and the Gutierrez twins Richard and Raymond to pick the best that the Queen City of the South could offer. More than 200 people came: a few William Hungs but generally a good batch, except that we were expecting to see taller and more voluptuous females to show up.
What does it take to be a Bench underwear model? Of course, there are the basic prerequisites: height, body proportions, skin type and facial features. The girls have to be tall, the guys taller. Plus the ability to strut down the ramp wearing the most minimal body wrap and still shine. This perhaps was one of the more important things we were looking for. Never mind those little imperfections. For the males, we wanted effortless masculinity. There were a few good men who had the height and the frame but who walked like they idolize Tina Maristela during her prime. There was this mestizo who knew he falls into the chubby league but still mustered enough guts to flaunt his wares.
There were ladies who knew they wouldn’t even be considered for Miss Intramurals but came anyway. There was this petite lass who obviously lacked height but resembled Ziyi Zhang so she caught our attention, too.
We also observed that for an underwear go-see like this, it’s very important to wear the right kind of underwear. Those in the know will always choose an underwear which is one size smaller. There were a couple of good-looking guys who committed the big mistake of wearing loose underwear, making them look more like their dads.
In the end, we got about more than two dozen hopefuls who will all be flown to Manila for the much-awaited Bench underwear show on June 30 at the Araneta Coliseum. They will join the big batch from Manila, plus a select group of Bench celebrity endorsers and who knows what’s next – one of them might just be in the next Bench billboards.