#cycle24

#1 – Jeana Turner

Normally the villain is in a way assisted by their edit: a lot of the times they get carried further to cause drama, or are still praised for modelling regardless of their personality. Jeana somehow came out with none of these positives. She really should have had a real chance of winning, got numerous first call-outs, and survived to the end without an elimination, but all these were taken away. Instead she was left with a negative tone, and honestly I feel it might have been better for her had she never come on the show. Jeana performed incredibly well throughout the entire show. Her portfolio was one of the strongest, maybe not as consistent as Khrys’, but it certainly had more peaks: she got 5 first call-outs from me, the most of any girl. Her runway walk was without a doubt the best of the cycle, even with her shorter height, which is expendable given how unique she is. The judges seemed to have a personal vendetta against her, which again seems unexplained. They gave her no first call-outs, despite deserving some, and never gave her wins for her runway walk, and when she did do best in the finale, ignored that by fixating on a detail that shouldn’t have mattered that much. During the makeovers she was made to be the hero, but then suddenly we are supposed to believe she is awful. In reality she is maybe a bit self-centred and cutthroat: both traits which are completely normal, but were hyper-intensified on the show. If we were being fair, in the modelling industry those are actually most likely positives, and would help Jeana succeed. All in all it is just clear Jeana was done incredible wrong by the show.

As I said, on a whole Khrys still probably had the one-up on portfolio, purely due to consistency and versatility. Jeana actually had more peaks than Khrys, but also actually had some bad photos. While Khrys seemed to be able to mesh her skills to any brief, Jeana fell down in the stripped back photoshoots. Even then, it is purely in photoshoots with no make-up she failed. Her vulnerable shot was one of my least favourites, and looks incredibly awkward: it is probably the one time her bald head didn’t work. But compare this to shoots with more natural and minimal make-up, like her trio shot, and we can see she does fine there. Jeana however always performed in conceptual photoshoots: her gold shot is still one of my favourite of the cycle. She killed it, and created a piece of art: had Zach Miko been on her level, then this shot would have been a real contender for the top spot.

#2 – Khrystyana Kazakova

Up until the finale I had all intentions of putting Khrys top, but then bit by bit with the final runway, calculation of average placings and writing of the top 10 list it all sort of became clear. Khrys still probably wins out for the portfolio, but she falls short of Jeana with her runway walk and look. Even if she is second, this doesn’t detract from the fact she is an incredible model; easily the strongest plus-sized model the show has ever had. Her portfolio was consistently great, and she never really took a bad photograph. She was absolutely robbed of a place in the final 2. In front of a camera she really shone. The aspects that drag her down still aren’t awful; her runway walk was okay, but a bit too bouncy for me, and seemed overrated in the early weeks, and in person Khrys could be a bit plain. She has a killer body, but face isn’t anything special. Compared to Jeana who has such a stand out trait, Khrys just doesn’t have that same wow factor. It isn’t that she failed in either of these areas, it is just comparatively she seems weaker. Against the rest of the cast she was still one of the top performers.

Khrys certainly slayed when it came to her portfolio: aside from her music video, she never fell outside my top 5 in the rankings. I think that again plays up to her strengths: she is incredible photogenic, but in motion lacks the same impact. Despite that, her weakest performance was her Paper magazine spread. Her body still looks great, but I think she got a bit too caught up in the character. I don’t fully blame her, as the panel seemed in shambles around that photo. I am willing to bet she had better shots, but just happened to get one picked which was what one clueless man thought was the best. As for my favourite…I am now just realising I picked her second video as her strongest performance, essentially invalidating the second sentence in this paragraph. Khrys somehow looked incredible there; the styling was perfection, her movements had an air of dreaminess. Every single frame was a hit, and it was a well-earned first call-out. I think it is also worth noting her vulnerable shot, as that was the strongest Khrys photographed in the competition, but the actual shot just wasn’t one of my favourites due to a more confusing message than others.

#3 – Khrystyana

#1 – Jeana

#1 – Khrystyana

Rio somehow went from cute narrator in the first 4 episodes to mega bitch, and I don’t know what happened. I think I got whiplash because of the sudden change. Right now she is just someone I want off the screen. Even Brendi is more entertaining than her, Rio is just cruel and comes across as a condescending bitter crone. So annoyed she is still in, and will probably still be in for ages.

#4 – Shanice