In the wake of Myanmar’s democratic transition, fashion, as Fiona MacGregor writes in her dispatch for Foreign Policy, “is a boom business.” But it’s hardly commercials and catwalks. Here’s an inside look at the seedy underbelly of the country’s burgeoning, but wholly unregulated, modeling industry.

Above, contestants prepare their costumes, hair, and makeup in advance of the Miss Myanmar World pageant at Yangon’s Strand Hotel on Sept. 23, 2014. Domestic shows like this, which are feeders for the international pageants, have become increasingly popular after the government eased long-held restrictions on participating in competitions abroad.

Models perform for male customers at Nan Htike bar in Yangon. As MacGregor writes, “[l]ocal bars have long hosted ‘model shows’ in which young women parade in matching outfits in front of the patrons.”

Emperor Bar, on Shwedagon Pagoda Road in Yangon's red light district, hosts “model shows.” These events, writes MacGregor, “serve as little more than a thinly veiled front for prostitution.”

A girl begins the night's entertainment at Zero Zone, a bar on Shwedagon Pagoda Road in Yangon's red light district. “Although young women, who do not have access to more formal representation, sometimes participate in these events with hopes of getting a foot in the door, even the higher end institutions have no formal connections with reputable modeling agencies,” writes MacGregor.

Models perform for male customers at Nan Htike bar, Yangon. “With local pop or covers of Western classics blasting through the speakers, the girls perform crudely choreographed routines on the garish platforms,” MacGregor writes.

A young contestant puts the finishing touches on her makeup before Miss Myanmar World 2014, at the Strand Hotel in Yangon.

A group of young women wait to demonstrate their poses during classes at the Talents and Models Agency, in Yangon. “Today, numerous Yangon-based modeling agencies serve as something of a one-stop career shop for those seeking to break into Myanmar’s burgeoning beauty industry,” writes MacGregor. “While such firms have been operating in the country for decades, demand for their services has increased significantly in recent years.”

Wyne Lay, 19, wins the title of Miss Myanmar World 2014, at the Strand Hotel in Yangon in September 2014.

A girl receives a necklace from a customer in Emperor Bar in Yangon. “Customers can pay for the company of the ‘models’ -- with waiters placing a garland of tinsel around the neck of a girl who’s been ‘chosen,’” writes MacGregor. “The patrons purchase a few minutes with the women of their choosing. Yet the transaction is often the pretext for the patron to negotiate a more lasting and private agreement for the evening.”

A girl in one of Yangon’s bars checks her phone as she waits for her peers before they move on to the next venue.

Wyne Lay waves to the crowd after winning the title of Miss Myanmar World 2014.

Staff at Nan Htike bar in Yangon prepare food and drinks for their mostly male clientele. In some establishments that host “model shows,” writes MacGregor male patrons “often return night after night to see the same girls, becoming something of an unofficial client.”

Girls in the “model shows” perform at multiple venues every night.