Claudia Schiffer claims supermodels are extinct.
The German beauty insists aspiring models can no longer achieve the kind of fame she, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista enjoyed in the 90s.
She believes actresses and pop stars are now much more likely to grace the covers of magazines, preventing models from reaching global celebrity status.
She told German magazine Fivetonine: "In order to become a supermodel one must be on all the covers all over the world at the same time so that people can recognise the girls.
"That is, for now, not least because the advertising industry is very much taken nowadays by pop stars and actresses. Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more."
However, Claudia does believe Brazilian catwalk beauty Gisele Bundchen comes close to earning the supermodel title.
She added: "Her face is well known, her name is recognised - but no other girl comes to mind that people in the street would recognise."
At the height of her fame, Claudia - who has two children, Caspar, four, and two-year-old Clementine, with husband Matthew Vaughn - had to be constantly protected by bodyguards.
She said: "I can remember when I needed four bodyguards to get backstage from a Chanel show just to my car. And that wasn't only me. It just isn't like that any more." | 
