Page "Supermodel" Paragraph 30

Criticism of the supermodel as an industry has been frequent inside and outside the fashion press, from complaints that women desiring this status become unhealthily thin to charges of racism, where the " supermodel " has generally to conform to a Northern European standard of beauty.

According to fashion writer Guy Trebay of The New York Times, in 2007, the " android " look is popular, a vacant stare and thin body serving, according to some fashion industry conventions, to set off the couture.

This was not always the case.

In the 1970s, black, heavier and " ethnic " models predominated the runways but social changes since that time have made the power players in the fashion industry flee suggestions of " otherness ".