THE MODEL AGE
THE age of celebrity-obsession is over and models are back in the game, according to US Vogue. Having featured the likes of Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson and Angelina Jolie on its cover in recent months, the American style bible has given the cover of its much-hyped, 832-page September issue over to nine of the world's most gorgeous current supermodels. But while in the days of Cindy, Christy, Linda and Naomi, most readers could have put names to the faces, these days, with the exception perhaps of Gisele Bundchen, the likes of Karen Elson, Gemma Ward, Hana Soukupova, Liya Kebede, Karolina Kurkova, Isabeli Fontana, Natalia Vodianova and Daria Werbowy are hardly known. And that's the way we want it, says the magazine's Sally Singer. "In this post-supermodel, post-superdesigner world, the very top people in fashion have their lives, go to work and go home," she told AP. "It's cooler to walk down the street and have only the people who should know you know you. It makes you part of this supercool club. Fashion is always slightly ahead of the curve culturally, and people are tiring of celebrities. Reality TV and the internet has cheapened being a 'celebrity'. To be famous now is to be Paris Hilton." (August 18 2004, AM)