There was Naomi, and then there was Kate. And let's not forget Christy and Claudia, either. But where are they now?
Granted, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss both continue to provide occasional tabloid fodder, but less for their modeling careers and more for gossip on their personal lives. As for Christy Brinkley, she's more often referred to as the former wife of singer Billy Joel than a former supermodel, while Claudia Schiffer recently announced her retirement from the runways altogether.
In fact, as New York kicks off a week full of fashion shows and cocktail parties hosted by its most celebrated designers and those who want to join their ranks, the models sporting the couture garments are unlikely by and large to be household names.
Not that there's a lack of enthusiasm from teenage girls who would dearly love to be idolized as the next new Kate. In fact, modeling agencies are reporting that public interest in strutting down the catwalk is as high as ever.
"We had over 25,000 applicants for one of our competitions this year," said Stephanie Coughlan of Wilhelmina Models, a top modeling agency. Based solely on the photographs they submitted, the company pared that number down to 30 women, who were called in for a mock photo shoot at the agency's New York offices and treated to three days of a "model lifestyle."
That group was then narrowed down to three people, who were signed on as professional models with the agency.
Certainly, the enviable social life of a model has been one of the main reasons some of them became celebrities, often becoming more famous than the brands they wear. From Paris to New York, their impossibly long legs and thin frames paraded the latest designs ranging from Versace to Kenzo.
But it was their off-the-catwalk activities as the belles of beautiful parties, surrounded by other beautiful people, that became fodder for People magazine, E! television programs, and every gossipy media outlet in between.
Better still, they were paid simply for being gorgeous, and they were paid lots.
"I won't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day," Linda Evangelista famously said in an interview. That, incidentally, is also the minimum the 105-pound, 5-foot 6-inch Kate Moss makes.
Admittedly, there were a few days in 1995 when New York Fashion Week organizers Council of Fashion Designers of America and 7th on Sixth Inc. tried to cap on all models' salaries. The group stated that they would recruit only models who didn't belong to agencies, unless they all agreed on a flat fee of $7.50 an hour per model, and $6.50 an hour for fittings.
That proposal was quickly quashed when lawyers got involved and accused the organizers of anti-trust activities.
Until now, it has been ultimately worth the designers' while to hire costly celebrity models to publicize their clothes and their names. Calvin Klein was one of the pioneers in harnessing star power to the fashion industry, when he started promoting his jeans through the then-teenaged Brooke Shields.
But that trend is beginning to wane, especially as the bulk of consumers are less eager to spend the extra wad of cash to buy a brand name jacket or handbag.
Since the economy started slipping in late 2000, coupled with last year's terrorist attacks, "people are really spending less on apparel and accessories," said Sarah Thompson of the National Retail Federation.
In fact, the sections that are doing well in these uncertain times are women's plus-size and children's clothing, or "people buying because they've gotten bigger," said Marshal Cohen of the market research agency NPD Group. That's a fashion trend that's even reflected in the modeling industry.
The Wilhelmina Models' competition that drew 25,000 applicants was "full-figure women of any age," which was commissioned for Mode Magazine, which specializes in the plus-size market.
And while modeling agencies continue to hold competitions and scout for the next new beautiful face with universal appeal, there are more competitions sponsored by a particular media outlet or designer with a specific audience in mind.
"We conduct more targeted searches," Wilhelmina's Coughlan said, adding that there was more demand for wearable clothing. That would immediately decrease the demand for the near-surreal bodies of supermodels.
After all, the fashion industry labels anything above a size 10 as full-figured, while fashion models must be within the range of sizes 4 to 6.
Meanwhile, the average consumer is often beyond a size 10, and suffers the double blow of not identifying with the bodies that parade the haute couture and being intimidated by the avant-garde clothing in the first place.
As for publicity, there are other ways for designers to get their name out into the general public, particularly by using Hollywood celebrities. It's a well-known industry fact that competition to get Gwyneth Paltrow or Julia Roberts to wear one designer gown over another at a gala or a film opening is simply cut-throat.
But at the same time, a film star wearing couture makes the designer all the more accessible, given that they appear in a wide range of clothes for their roles from casual jeans to period costumes, depending on their roles.
Just think how much the somewhat staid House of Valentino benefited from the petite Reese Witherspoon wearing Valentino's black cocktail dress to the Oscars earlier this year.
Valentino became an instant hot item among 20-somethings who perhaps had never heard of the Italian designer until then.
(GoTo Shop is a biweekly musing on where or where not to spend one's hard-earned paycheck. If there is, indeed, an opposite and equal reaction for every action, then shopping is no exception. The fine art of shopping can be a political statement, a social manifestation, an economic triumph, or simply a dud decision on the part of the consumer.)
