The return of the model

Veruschka in YSL in 1968, as displayed at the Model as Muse exhibition in New York. Photo / Supplied

There once was a time when models sold fashion. A quaint time when celebrities were photographed where they belonged - looking glamorous on the red carpet and on screen, rather than having their mug on the cover of every magazine on the newsstand. A time when celebrities wouldn't damage their brand by fronting a campaign for another company, no matter how luxurious or high-end. Models sold fashion, celebrities sold entertainment: the divide was very clear. Think about it: nearly all of the most iconic fashion images have featured models, not celebrities - Kate Moss smiling on the front of The Face, Twiggy standing alongside fans wearing Twiggy face masks, all of the best 90s supermodels standing sassily in front of motorbikes wearing Versace miniskirts. There are many, many more of course, but the point is this: what happened? Where did all the models go?

The answer is simple really - the Western world became celebrity obsessed, and the supermodels of the past were replaced with the perky, smiling faces of Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow and Renee Zellweger (have you noticed how often these famous ladies feature on the cover of a magazine?). Celebrities began to feature in campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Balenciaga and Versace, and somewhere along the way the celebrity front row at a fashion show became just as important (if not more) than the collection on display. Of course, there's nothing necessarily wrong with this - celebrities seem glamorous, interesting, sometimes even relatively intelligent, so why wouldn't we want to look at them, read about them and know every single tiny detail about their lives? Fashion usually prides itself on being glamorous and exclusive, so aligning itself with the rise of modern celebrity seems pretty smart really. Although if you're anything like me, you'll be a little tired of reading another Vogue profile on Drew Barrymore or looking at another fashion spread featuring Keira Knightly and her pout.

The latest exhibition Model as Muse at the Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrates fashion's relationship with the model, exploring "the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, focusing on iconic fashion models in the latter half of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their prospective eras". It's a concept that seems almost archaic in 2009, where we are more likely to follow what Mary-Kate Olsen is wearing than say, current It-model Lara Stone. The current crop of models on the runways aren't exactly memorable, with the oft-repeated complaints that they're faceless, replaceable and generic.

There are exceptions to this rule of course; modern-day clotheshorses that capture the world's imagination and help embody the look of a specific moment in fashion. Kate Moss is the most prolific, but Gisele Bundchen and Agyness Deyn may also fit into this category (Deyn is muse to best friend Henry Holland, and Bundchen is muse to er, teenage boys around the world). Model Erin Wasson was muse and stylist for Alexander Wang (they parted ways after two seasons), and Australian model Tallulah Morton acts as a "sort of muse" to social photographer Mark Hunter, better known as The Cobrasnake. Both models have also captured the hearts of many a fashion blogger with their unique style. But it's the iconic models of the past who best represent this model as muse concept: Dovima personified the Golden Age of Couture in the 1950s, the 1960s saw the rise of relatively odd-looking models Twiggy, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton and Peggy Moffit. Halston's "Halstonettes", the leggy group of models who accompanied the designer to Studio 54 represented the glamour of the 70s. And then of course there were the formidable supermodels of the 90s, who wouldn't wake up for less than $10,000 a day and were as much a part of 90s fashion as say, Versace or Helmut Lang.

Azzedine Alaia can't be mentioned without also mentioning his association with models Stephanie Seymour and Naomi Campbell - both of whom decided not to attend the gala to open the Model as Muse exhibition (nicknamed "fashion's Oscars"), because the exhibition glaringly didn't feature any of Alaia's work.

What the exhibition does feature is amazing and iconic fashion photography created in a timeline between 1947 to 1997, from the likes of Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Peter Lindbergh, Juergen Teller, Ellen von Unwerth and many more. Split into decades, the exhibition also features 80 pieces of haute couture and ready-to-wear pieces that help sum up the look of an era, as well as a large-scale projection of the 1966 French fashion spoof Qui etes-vous, Polly Magoo. Seeing the images as a whole (some of which are pictured here), it's a reminder of the power of photography, fashion and, yes, models. But with the most recent issues of American and British Vogue both featuring models on the cover (in the case of American Vogue, nine models), and 90s supermodels appearing in recent campaigns for everyone from Yves Saint Laurent to Chanel to Prada, it's entirely possible that fashion is tiring of celebrity overload and returning to the heyday of the clotheshorse.