A Guide on What to Wear to Modelling Castings

Have you booked a modelling casting and have no idea what to wear? As you prepare to take on the competitive world of model castings, your outfit should reflect your professionalism, industry expectations, and give you a confidence boost to put your best foot forward. 

From choosing the right pants to hair and makeup, here’s what you need to wear for your next model casting. 

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Model Casting Outfit Colours

Before you even start picking out clothes to wear, remember that less colour is always more with modelling castings. At a casting, your goal is to be seen as a blank canvas for your potential client to work with. This means that you do not need bright colours, patterns, or any clothing that is too stand out.

You want to look fresh, versatile, and reflect the expectations of the modelling industry (to avoid appearing ‘amateur’). Your best bet with colour palette is a fashion industry favourite: black. Your entire outfit (perhaps excluding shoes) should be black. Remember: all black everything. 

What Top Should You Wear? 

Simple is better. You do not need a professional shirt, a blouse, or anything with logos on it. The top that you select should be plain black. Personally, I opt for a black tank top. Some people use crop tops, but I personally prefer the full coverage of a tank top so that the client can see the shape of my body. For me, it looks more sleek.

A standard or racer back tank top is fine, as well as spaghetti strap camisoles, though they should not be too ‘floaty’, and should be tighter on your body to show your silhouette. 

What Pants Should You Wear? 

The casting uniform usually involves jeans. Black ones. They should have no holes, frays, or rips (remember, we’re keeping this professional!). So many people love flared or baggy jeans, but unfortunately, this style isn’t going to cut it for a modelling casting.

When you select jeans for your modelling casting outfit, they should be skinny or straight-leg jeans. The reason for this is that the casting director needs to see the lines and silhouette of your body as clearly as possible. This will give them a good idea of your body shape and if you’ll be suitable for the brand. 

What Shoes Should You Wear? 

There’s a bit of a secret to choosing the best shoes for a modelling casting. Any shoe that you wear to a casting should have a stiletto heel (no wedges or thick block heels!) The heel height should be around 7-10 centimetres tall (3-4 inches). I usually select plain beige heels - they’re my secret weapon to making my legs look longer. But you can choose plain black stilettos if that’s more your style.

The heels should be broken in, comfortable and you should practise walking in them before getting to the casting. There’s nothing worse than standing around in stilettos that you’ve never worn and having sore feet for the rest of the day.

Important tip: wear sneakers to the casting, but switch them out for stilettos before you arrive at the location. You’ll thank yourself later! 

An example of what to wear to a casting. Instead of a crop top/sports bra, I would switch it out for a tank top.

How to Style Your Hair

This depends on the casting and what the brand is looking for. For an editorial or high fashion casting, you might choose to put your hair in a ponytail to give you more of a clean, blank canvas ‘fashion’ look.

For a commercial casting, you may choose to show your natural hair by wearing it out. For the runway, a casting director may want to see your hair out, to see how it moves. Whichever type of job your casting is for, your hair must be freshly washed and cleaned. Don’t turn up to a casting with dirty or messy hair!

How to Do Your Makeup

Remember when I said ‘less is more’? This is the same for makeup at casting. Any distractions that take away from your natural beauty should be minimised as much as possible. This means no fun, colourful eyeshadow, eyeliner, blush, bronzer, lipstick and so on.

Your makeup look should be as natural as possible, and if you do have blemishes on the day, use a small amount of concealer to cover them but make sure to blend it for an even skin tone. Having casting-worthy skin shouldn’t be too much of an issue if you’ve got a good skincare regime - you can see my top recommendations for skincare products for more. 

Other Things to Remember 

When you attend the casting, make sure you have practised good personal hygiene and grooming. Make sure any unwanted body hair is removed the night before. Make sure your eyebrows are groomed.

Your nails should be natural and neat with clear nail polish (no false nails/press ons/acrylics). Hair should be washed and clean. And finally, skip your favourite perfume on casting day - we don’t want any overwhelming fragrances wafting about the room. 

Making the right choices for your casting outfit from clothes to makeup can help you leave a lasting impression on casting directors. Remember, every casting is an opportunity to showcase your professional presentation and versatility. Good luck! 

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