Phoenix Fashion Week might just be another fashion organization to the audience and general public, but to the models, designers and others involved, Phoenix Fashion Week is a giant family. Bianca Mead, this year’s host and 2014 Model of the Year winner, says Phoenix Fashion Week is her second family, who helped her gain her confidence and change her for the better.
“Being so young and growing with them the last five years, they really have become people in my life forever that I can not just thank enough,” Mead says. She first got involved with Phoenix Fashion Week in 2010 at the age of 15.
Mead was raised in a small-town in upstate New York and moved out with her mother to Phoenix, at the age of 9. She began modeling when she first started taking modeling classes taught by one of her mother’s friend when she was 14.
Meeting the elegant model now may make it difficult to envision now, but before Mead began modeling she was just another “wallflower.” Now she is known for her eye-catching chic outfits, a sharp contrast to her younger years when Mead went out of her way to not stick out. Her entire wardrobe consisted of t-shirts, shorts and jeans. She describes her former-self as a “very, very shy child.”
“It probably wasn’t until I started doing Fashion Week that I said ‘you know what mom? I’m ready to ditch my entire wardrobe,’” Mead said. “Let’s go shopping.”
She models her current fashion-style after “Sex and the City” character Carrie Bradshaw. But she still wears the occasional t-shirt and jeans combo.
“I’ve got some great palazzo pants with the crazy patterns on it and I’ll wear it with a mixed match crop top,” Mead says giggling about her current wardrobe. “I would say the amount of palazzo pants I have, I don’t think anyone would expect that.”
She began participating in Phoenix Fashion Week after the agency she was with at the time recommended she participate in the competition. She did not make it past auditions and her mother was the one who convinced her to try out again the following year.
“I had a year under my belt, more confidence and experience,” says Mead. “I ended up making it to the Top 40 models.”
She was competing with models twice her age and says that really intimidated her. She still went out and gave her best. It was also the first time she ever walked the runway.
“I absolutely loved it!” Mead exclaims.
After the competition ended, she was not sure if she wanted to continue to pursue modeling. Once again, her mother gave her the confidence to try her luck once again.
Mead’s mother told her “you never know what might happen in another year with that much more experience.”
For the second year in a row, Mead became one of the Top 40 models. The third year is when Mead really set forth in standing out.
“I ended up coming out of my shell,” Mead says. “I absolutely loved it. You make so many relationships at Phoenix Fashion Week.”
Bianca says she loved the experience so much she decided to do the competition again.
“I just did it for the fun of it,” Mead says. “I just loved everything about Phoenix Fashion Week.”
Fourth time was the charm, at least it was for Mead, when she became the 2014 Phoenix Fashion Week Model of the Year.
She couldn’t help smiling from ear to ear when she thought back to that moment, noting how incredible the experience was.
Ignoring the haters
Mead might have never won nor participated in the competition if she would’ve listened to the negative crowd who dismayed her modeling career when she was in junior high.
“When I tried to get into modeling people would say ‘Oh! So you think you’re better than everyone else?’” Mead recalls. “It was really, really tough for me.”
The negative comments began to take their toll on Bianca, making her want to put her modeling career on the back burner, even when she says she was not high and mighty as her classmates believed.
Mead says she made a necessary change in her life when she decided to switch to a different high school her freshman year. As she began building those relationships with her new friends, she was reluctant to tell them about her modeling career.
But when her new friends did find out, they were supportive.
Her new friends were not the only ones to support Bianca and help her attain her confidence. She credits her mother and the Phoenix Fashion Week team, Brenna Moses and Brian Hill, as well. The support they gave her led her to finally trying her hand at hosting. Mead was constantly told she had the voice to be a host and it wasn’t until she met Brittney Brannon, the 2014 Phoenix Fashion Week host, when she ultimately realized she wanted to be in front of the camera.
Mead quickly began hosting alongside Jessica Seeger at the 2015 Model of the Year.
“After I did it, the door just swung open for me,” says Mead. “I was like I want to do it again, like let’s do it again and again and again.”
She received several job opportunities outside of the fashion world, working in public relations and on an AZTV show called Listings and Lifestyles.
Bianca says her experience at Phoenix Fashion has matured her, and helped her grow as a person.
“There is so much I can say about the last five years at Phoenix Fashion Week,” says Mead. “Sometimes I can get emotional talking about it. For me, it has been the bases where everything has come from.”
