Lauren Zaiffveen talks with Elmer Olsen of Canada's Next Top Model during a casting call at the Deep Sea Adventure Bridge at West Edmonton Mall yesterday afternoon. (Jason Franson, Sun Media)

EDMONTON - Hundreds of Canada's Next Top Model hopefuls lined up yesterday in Edmonton for swift judgment on their looks.

Producers of the CTV reality show were in the city to assess the local beauties.

Edmonton is one of five cities to host an open call with girls hoping to grace the pages of Fashion magazine.

Pamela Saxon, 23, waited an hour-and-a-half in a "meat market" for fresh modelling talent.

"But it sells. It's what people want," she said before taking a long walk across a bridge inside West Edmonton Mall, with a fashion judge waiting at the other end.

She came because her fiancee thought she had the looks, she said.

"While you're young, you may as well live it up."

At the other end of the walk sat Elmer Olsen, the fashion magnate and talent scout who will sign the eventual winner to a modelling contract.

"Western Canada is well known for its good-looking women," he said during a short break between judgments. "I've seen lots of tall girls - some lean cuisine."

He doesn't mash words when it comes to his beauty standards.

"They have to be tall, have great legs - no hips, long neck, broad shoulders," he said.

No one shorter than five-foot-eight was allowed to enter the competition. Only contestants 23 or younger were permitted.

"Designers in Paris, they don't design for average women," he said. "Fashion is fantasy, not reality."

"Let's face it - if you want to be a doctor, the good Lord can't give everyone the brains to be a doctor. Not everyone can be a model, very simply."

He said that for the first round, the good girls were separated from the bad ones by the time they walked up to his table.

Adrielle Morton, 18, and her 38-year-old mom Jodi drove in from Lloydminster undaunted by the steep odds.

"I've watched the show before. I think I know what they're looking for," said Morton, standing about six foot.

She didn't make the first cut. But Jessie Lens, a 22-year-old mother of one from Meadow Lake, Sask., did make it - after some harsh words from the judge Olsen.

"He told me my hips were too wide, but he said I have a nice face and he'll let me through," she said.

When Olsen told Lens she had child-bearing hips, she gently reminded him that it was, in fact, because she had a kid.

Next up for her was a longer one-on-one interview later in the day, and a 92-question homework assignment.

"Kind of ironic for a fashion competition," she said, laughing.

Auditions are set to wrap up in Toronto Jan. 23. Edmonton was the only stop in the Prairies.