Model and actress Rabia Maddah, 28, has one of those stories you always dreamed of happening to you as a teen.
At the age of 14 she was walking through a shopping centre in Cologne, Germany with her mum when a marketing rep from Dove, along with a model agent, stopped Rabia in her tracks.
They were desperately looking for a girl with thick black hair for their campaign – a rarity back in Cologne in 2005 – and Rabia fit the bill perfectly.
Her mum wouldn’t let Rabia work as a model until she turned 18, but the day she did she gave that same agent a ring. He remembered her and Rabia was signed immediately.
Now based in London, Rabia makes a living from acting and modelling. Along with traditional commercial shoots, she specialises in body parts modelling – specifically for hands, legs, and feet.
Her feet have appeared in campaigns for Clarks, Marks and Spencer, Superdrug, to advertise shoes on ASOS, and in the pages of Cosmopolitan magazine.
Brands will often ask for Rabia’s feet and legs to model everything from shoes to nail polish and skincare products.
She takes good care of her tools.
‘I am a person who has been obsessed with pedicure and manicures since a teenager,’ Rabia tells Metro.co.uk. ‘I firmly believe that feet say a lot about a person’s health, as acupuncture and other ancient healing ways, such as in Ayurveda, have proven.
‘Once a week I do a foot soak, add some nourishing oils, use an exfoliating scrub and take off the dead skin on my heels.’
Rabia explains that typically the day before a foot-focused photoshoot she’ll get a ‘very specific’ briefing on how her feet must appear – but there’s always a pedicurist on set, too.
‘It is quite a luxury to get a great pedicure and massage of your legs on the shooting day,’ she adds.
Her strangest experience on set has to be being asked to wiggle only her little toe – which, it turns out, isn’t really possible.
‘That cracked an entire production of 20 people up,’ says Rabia. ‘It wasn’t doable.
‘Suddenly many team members were all trying to do this task. For an outsider we must have looked mad!’
Anyone else now frantically trying to wriggle their little toe?
Foot modelling only makes up part of Rabia’s working life, but she’s glad she’s found success in this niche.
The model tells us: ‘It can be really a great way to have a side income and also networking in that area is great – as the same brand who hired you for parts modeling may book your face and the rest of your body for another campaign.
‘The competition is definitely less than in the rest of the modeling work I would say, but still there is always a good bunch of other girls you have to compete against.’
What's the deal with Feet Week?
Feet Week is a week dedicated entirely to feet... as the name probably gives away.
We figured we could all do with something to occupy our minds during the pandemic - and what better topic than feet?
From 4 May to 10 May you can find articles on everything feet, from what it actually takes to be a foot model to what it's like to be a pro toe wrestler.
MORE: Feet Week: A foot model shares how she prepares for a photoshoot
MORE: Photographer shares what it’s like to take pictures of women’s feet for a living
MORE: Feet Week: An agent explains what it takes to make it as a foot model
source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/09/professional-foot-model-says-strangest-request-shes-set-wiggle-little-toes-12678620/
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