I attended Ogle Fort Worth from 2014-2015. In 2015, the students were allowed to participate in an editorial hair contest, Trend Vision. I modeled for another student, and the school had brought in Ale Bonilla to do the photography for us. He came with a team of stylists, a few girls and one other guy. The models were made up of some people the students found, but the majority were fellow students. When it was my turn to model, after only taking a few photos of me Ale stopped and asked for me to change into a nude strapless top. That was fine, but he said to just change there. I felt pressured to change in front of everyone. I said no, and that I would change in the closet instead. I can remember him saying “It’s just us here” as if that would make it okay. Changing in front of someone else is fine, but I didn’t want to change in front of him. I had the courage to stand my ground thanks to a fellow student backing me up. After I had changed he sent up two female stylists to alter the top, quickly saying “if anything shows we will edit it out.” I was so exhausted by this point I didn’t argue or even say anything. I have no idea if anything showed in any of the images, but I was too mentally out of it to think. I just wanted it over with. I’m not sure of the amount of ladies he tried to sway to change in front of him, however I do know I wasn’t the only one. I heard one stripped down, although I don’t think she was a student. He asked something similar to most of the models even though most were students. Although a few models seemed fine with it, that wasn’t the majority feeling. I think after hours of being in hair and makeup a lot of the models were too tired and hungry to really care. Some were just done, and they did whatever they needed to just get it over with. I am not entirely sure where the instructors were at this time. I’m also not sure if the school knew about Ale asking the models to change in front of him, or if they would approve of it. After that, Ale and I were facebook friends for a while. I remember he would sometimes like really old photos of mine. I thought it strange, but didn’t think too much into it at the time.
One other memory I have of him: when I was working at Ulta, a fellow stylist and I were talking and I mentioned how I would have applied to Esoterica if I lived closer. She got wide eyed and said that she heard rumors from other stylists that he was a pervert and to stay away from his salon. It was at the time that I truly waited for someone to come forward. I chose to rarely share my modeling experience though. I only told a few people, because some might dismiss it by saying it came with the job or something. I am only now seeing from fellow students that everyone at school was creeped out by him.
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