As you ready your best poses for the premiere of 'America's Next Top Model,' brush up on some of the show's best terms and phrases
Over the course of 22 cycles of America’s Next Top Model, host Tyra Banks has taught a fleet of
young, ambitious models -- as well as audiences at home -- everything they need
to know about modeling, “from H2T.” (That’s “head to toe” for the uninitiated.)
Now that the show’s been revived by VH1 -- the long-running
CW reality competition was canceled after cycle 22 in 2015 -- it’s time for a
refresher course on the vivacious language the show has generated since it
first aired in 2003. As you ready your
best poses for the premiere of America’s Next Top Model, now hosted by Rita Ora, brush up on
some of the show’s best terms and phrases -- plus some from the new judging
panel!
MORE: Rita Ora Vows to Further Tyra Banks' Legacy on 'America's Next Top Model'
America’s Next Top
Best Friend: The reality competition for models who are not serious about
winning, or, as Jade from cycle 6 puts it: “This is not America’s Next Top Best Friend.”
ANTM: Short for America’s
Next Top Model; it’s what you call the show when you’re in the know.
Being a Ho: A bit
of model wisdom from Tyra about the level of sexiness to incorporate into a
pose, as she explained in cycle 8: “Modeling is being a ho, but making
fashion.”
Blonde Inside: When your natural hair color dictates
your attitude, as cycle 11 contestant Clark Gilmer declared when she went
brunette and said, “I may have brown hair now, but I’m still blonde inside.”
Boom, Boom, Wow:
A reference to a female model’s abs. A variation for the show’s male
contestants was “Boom, Boom, Boom.”
Booty Tooch: As Tyra explained during “dictionary hour”
in cycle 19 (College Edition), the
booty tooch is a model pose in which you isolate the body and pop out the
posterior for a curvier silhouette in photos. Variations include booch (for men), juicy tooch, Gucci tooch (see
below), poochie tooch and side tooch.
Cycle: The
preferred term to refer to each competition period featuring 12-14 models vying
to become “America’s Next Top Model.”
Drekitude: A term attributed to former judge André
Leon Talley to refer to a really bad picture or ensemble; Tyra calls it a
synonym for disgusting.
Fierce: While ANTM
didn’t invent this superlative for being really amazing, the show can take
credit for bringing it out of gay culture and into millions of homes.
Fierceness should be a top goal for any aspiring Top Model.
Flawsome: When a model’s physical flaws make for
awesomely beautiful pictures, they’re flawsome.
Flicked: Rita’s slang for getting eliminated; “We
don't want you to get flicked,” she said to ET.
Go-See: An
appointment to “go see” a designer about a modeling job. A go-see is to
modeling as an audition is to acting.
Gucci Tooch: A high-fashion variation on the booty
tooch in which hands are on hips and shoulders are cast forward, as Tyra once demonstrated
for Steve Harvey.
H2T: The next most important ANTM acronym anyone should know; it stands for “head to toe,” the
regions a model needs to maximize.
Hoochie Stop: The stop on a metaphorical fashion
train where one’s sexiness might come across as too trashy. Tyra used the term
to give a compliment to a picture taken by cycle 15 contestant Chris White: “I
like this picture of you, Chris, in the wide. It has a sexuality that borders
on a slight hoochie, but you didn’t get off on the hoochie stop. You stayed on
the train.”
Light: What you
need to find in order to take a good photo.
Pot Ledom: Say it backward!
Resting on Pretty: Don’t
get it twisted; this is not a good thing. It’s what happens when a model
becomes so satisfied with his/her looks that they make no effort in their photo.
Sinnocent: When a model can offer a look that is sexy
and innocent at the same time.
Smize: Did you know you can smile with body parts
other than your mouth? You can do it with your eyes, a true Tyra favorite.
Tiffany: The
seemingly apathetic cycle 4 contestant that Tyra LOST. IT. On. when the model
appeared ambivalent about being eliminated. It also gave us the lasting Tyra
phrase “We were all rooting for you.”
Top Model Institute
of Technology: A warehouse outside Los Angeles where contestants were
evaluated by very thoroughly scientific methods and eventually introduced to
the “Glaminator,” who laid out the competition on cycle 11.
Triple B: A variation on the term “triple threat,” which
in Rita’s world means being “a boss, a brand and a business.”
Tyover: The term for a makeover by Tyra. Maybe this
season it’ll be known as the OraOver? That’d be fierce.
Wanna Be on Top?:
The most important question asked at the beginning of every episode.
Warritress: What
former judge J. Alexander refers to as a female warrior.
Werk/Werq/Work: It’s
what you need to do in order to win.
Zoolander, The: When
you raise your eyebrows too high, like Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller). It’s also
something former judge Janice Dickinson can no longer do: “I have so much Botox
in my face, I can’t really do it anymore.”
MORE: 'ANTM' Contestant Nyle DiMarco Names His Sexiest Feature and Signs 'Top Model' Phrases