Models try on charity work for size

The expensive settings and cutting-edge clothes were gone. Instead, in the background there was a medical clinic in Cairo, where veiled Muslim mothers and babies were having life-changing surgery.

Hearst was working for the first time in the developing world, supporting Operation Smile, a charity that helps correct children born with facial deformities. For her, it was a life-changing experience.

"It changed my perspective and made me take a step back and re-evaluate priorities and personal objectives," she said.

Hearst's mission to Egypt was part of a new trend in the fashion world: staging charity fundraisers in the developing world rather than New York or London, and seeing the hardships at first hand.

For Hearst, making the trip to Egypt was the sign of a greater personal commitment to a good cause than just persuading people to write big cheques.

"Saving the lives of children is the ultimate goal of Operation Smile. For those of us working in fashion, it is very easy to add your name to a committee list, walk a red carpet and claim to care. But taking tangible, hands-on steps to create change speaks volumes," she said.

The list of top models attaching themselves to serious causes is growing ever longer. Last September Gisele Bundchen was named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme.

For the charities involved, the advantages of having a famous model attached to their cause is obvious. The enormous modern appetite for celebrity news is a guarantee that attention will then be paid to a worthy cause.

"Celebrities attract attention," said Marissa Buckanoff, the chief of celebrity relations at Unicef. "That allows Unicef to focus the eyes of the world on the needs of children."

Fashion is an increasingly globalised industry that draws its top talent from a wide variety of countries. For example, Iman is from Somalia, Alek Wek is from Sudan and Natalia Vodianova is from Russia. All of them are involved in causes that reflect their origins.

Having a good charity attached to your name is now part of the overall celebrity fashion brand.

While charity work may be seen as self-serving and a way of boosting a model's profile, other figures downplay that side of things, pointing out that some fashion figures, such as Claudia Schiffer, have been doing charity work for many years and hardly need to boost their global fame.

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