Ten faces. Ten wishes. Ten young women all teetering on stilettos. Tall, delicate, vulnerable, they emerge from the pink room, ready to sit under the lights and speak out over a mass of faces. It's nearly time to write down the name of the winner.
At the party in the Georgian elegance of Spy nightclub on South William Street, Dublin, we gather to meet the finalists in a modelling competition and hear the judges' decision.
And then, a star is born. For Robin Crotty, who is announced as the VIP Face of 2001, it's only the beginning.
"She's like a porcelain doll," says a pleased Emer O'Reilly-Hyland, fashion editor of the glossy magazine, which joined forces with L'OrΘal Paris to seek a fresh modelling talent.
They find the special quality they're looking for in Crotty, who is a saxophone player, a singer and an artist to boot. Crotty (18) finished her Leaving Cert at Mount Sackville School in Chapelizod this year. Her parents, Christine and Des Crotty, from Clonee in Co Dublin, are both here to cheer her on. Her prizes include a year-long contract with the leading modelling agency, Morgan, The Agency.
The judges are "amazed by the confidence, personality and individual style" of all 10 finalists, says O'Reilly-Hyland. Each girl has been photographed, interviewed and fΩted throughout the day. Make-up, lights, pose . . . perfect.
One of the youngest finalists is Linda Hanlon (17), who is going into fifth year at the Holy Family Community School in Rathcoole, Dublin, this year. She wants to be a model "for the glamour, the fame and the money". RT╔'s Marty Whelan, our compΦre, is taken aback. We soon learn that everyone wants to be a model. Parents applaud their beautiful girls. Anne Reilly, from Malahide, beams as her daughter, Andrea Reilly (17), is introduced.
One of the judges, former Miss Ireland and model Olivia Tracey, who is currently home from Los Angeles for the summer, is a kind of icon for them all. She's just done a short Irish film, All the Best, playing a girl-next-door character, "rather than the owner of a corporation, for a change", she says. Watch out for one of her more recent modelling jobs - for Viagra in the US - in which she had to look "healthy and satisfied", while dressed in green.
As the fash-bash continues, Emer's husband, a bank insurer, Kenneth O'Reilly-Hyland, chats to Prof Anthony Hourihan, head of UCD's banking and finance department.
They rule the world, don't you know.