Franchesca during the CloseUp campaign shoot. Photo from the Asia’s Next Top Model Facebook page
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 Apr) – Too commercial? No problem.
That was what Franchesca Denise Lagua told MindaNews in an interview after last week’s episode of Asia’s Next Top Model.
Even after being removed from the competition, Lagua remains optimistic and sees better days ahead of her.
“I think no one expected that a PH representative will go home too early,” she said. In the previous seasons of the Next Top Model franchise in Asia, all of the Philippine contenders made it to the top three. Lagua is the first Filipino contestant in the franchise to have been eliminated in as early as episode five. “Pero okay lang! It wasn’t that bad anyway.”
Recalling the day when the episode was shot, Lagua said that her intuitions had already been telling her that it was her time to go. “Something happened while shooting that made me feel like, ‘hmm, I’m really going home after this,’” she said. “I knew that I was going home at that time. That was why I was numb already. I just wanted to get over it.”
When asked what her plans are and where she’s headed after the show, Lagua said that her work as a model continues. “I’m still modeling, planning to attend more VTRs [tapings, shootings] now,” she said. “Since they said that I’m too commercial [and not for high fashion], I should pursue that path!”
“I really want to get into makeup,” she said about other interests that she’d like to pursue. “I found my passion in that!”
Lagua said that the show taught her to put into action the cliché that has been tirelessly repeated in many advice columns: “I learned to believe in myself, to stop self-doubting and to just be confident! I learned that the hard way.”
She said that the highlight of her experience was meeting the girls from all parts of Asia.
Franchesca during the makeover photoshoot. Photo from the Asia’s Next Top Model Facebook page
Recap
The girl from Davao was eliminated from the show after failing to impress the judges in a challenge that involved creating a photo for a Closeup campaign. (In an episode prior to this, Lagua was also placed in the bottom three with Vietnam’s Celine Duong and Hong Kong’s Lorretta Chow.)
During the episode, host and judge Georgina Wilson said that she had to make “the toughest decision so far” and that was to eliminate one of the three Philippine contestants. Wilson said that she still had a “glimmer of hope” for Lagua despite the “lackluster” outputs from the photo shoot challenges, inferring that Lagua isn’t at her best when doing high fashion.
In the previous episodes, Lagua was commented to have that “too commercial” appeal.
“I’m still a fighter,” Lagua said in the episode; she was undaunted and didn’t seem fazed when facing Wilson again. “I honestly don’t know anymore,” Wilson responded before proceeding to announce that she was going to be the one eliminated.
Eight contestants remain in the show to compete for the title Asia’s Next Top Model. Amanda Bianca Chan and Marlena Monika Sta. Maria are the two remaining Philippine contenders.
