From Weekend 1
There was almost certainly some justification for the hostility the "Supermodels had started to generate. But it's worth pointing out that the fashion business is not an especially attractive environment, as was repeatedly pointed out in last year's widely read expose Model by New York journalist Michael Gross.
Modelling is an intensely competitive field in which there are many more losers than winners. What's more, it demands enormous discipline dedication from very young girls.
Imagine being sent alone to a city like Paris at the age of 15 and told toe spend the next fortnight on "go sees" - cold calling on prospective clients who will give your portfolio of photographs a cursory inspection before dismissing you. That's how the majority of young models start further. One of the most damning aspects of Gross's book is the regular exploitation of models who have been expected to trade sexual favours in return for assistance at work.
If a model does manage to secure a good position in the business, the demands on her grow more not less. "Most of them work incredibly hard in terms of professionalism," says Jane Mulvagh, who believes "the really intelligent ones deserve their stardom". As any model will confirm, here's precious little pleasure in serving as the vehicle for all successive designers' fantasies, no matter how fabulous the end result may appear.
The fashion industry is sustained by women but it has always been completely dominated by men. With a handful of exceptions, the majority of designers are male; so too are most agents and photographers. So perhaps it's understandable that when a group of Supermodels got the chance to make the running, they seized the opportunity. Suddenly they were in charge.
But that phase didn't last for very long and it's unlikely to happen again. After less than five years, the era of the Supermodel has ended. The reason for this is not, as might be thought, because they demanded excessively high fees or engaged in behaviour unbecoming to the business. No, the real problem is that these women were attracting more, attention than the product they were supposed to promote. Photographers and journalists were focusing on the models and not the clothes' Supermodels became, therefore, a liability.
And that's why they so quickly passed out of common currency. Now you hardly see them anymore; the only one from that generation who still works consistently is the chameleon like Linda Evangelista. But others have eased off, like Christy Turlington who's now studying for a B.A. in New York, has an exclusive contract with Calvin Klein and has stopped doing live shows on the international circuit. Or they've started to explore alternative careers, most often acting which has been the model's favourite choice over the years but also, in the case of (Naomi Campbell, singing and writing (both of these with only limited success it must be said).
Which makes tonight's show all the more extraordinary because it's like a Supermodel reunion, a last hurrah of the set that has drifted apart since its heyday at the start of the decade. The likelihood that they'll ever appear together again on the ramp anywhere in the world is remote. It's a unique occasion and is likely to mark the end of the era.
As for those other names mentioned at the beginning of this article, they're Stella Tennant, Amber Valetta, Shalom Harlow and Bridget Hall, four of the most successful models working on the international scene at the moment. The difference between them and their immediate predecessors is that, reverting to an earlier form, their names and personalities are hardly known outside the industry. They're supermodels but that title has lost its capital S.