Fighting words. Veteran supermodel Janice Dickinson slammed Kendall Jenner and the Hadid sisters, Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid, for not being “good” supermodels themselves.
“No. They’re not [good],” the former America’s Next Top Model judge told the “Behind the Velvet Rope” podcast host David Yontef on Thursday, March 4. “They have one look. They don’t really diversify their movements. They just stand there and get paid millions of dollars.” The 66-year-old continued, “They were never on the level of the girls from the ’70s and ’80s and ’90s. We were fabulous.”
In the former model’s mind, having fame on social media doesn’t automatically make someone magazine cover ready. “The models of the ’70s, ’80s do not compare to the models of today, the Instagram models that get famous and they put into Vogue,” she added. “The Kylie Jenners and the Gigi Hadids and the Bella Hadids.”
“They have millions and millions and millions of followers,” Janice noted. “And you know, what Vogue has a subscription of what 800,000 and Kylie Jenner has got like, what, 25 million people following her? Something like that.”
This isn’t the first time a fashion industry vet has called out the new generation for their dependence on social media. Former model Rebecca Romijn told Entertainment Tonight in April 2016 that many industry pros don’t consider digital fame to be a real prerequisite for modeling.
“No one has proven yet that numbers of followers translates to revenue,” the 48-year-old said at the time. “So it is frustrating. I know a lot of people — legitimate fashion people — can’t stand it. Hate it that these, you know, social media stars are now the supermodels in fashion. They are not true supermodels.”
Kendall responded to the shade she and her fellow models were receiving from the older generation of fashion A-listers in June 2016 via her now-defunct website and app.
“Being a ‘supermodel’ is a relative term,” the 25-year-old wrote at the time. “If people want to call Gigi and I supermodels now, it doesn’t take anything away from supermodels of the past. Obviously, I have so much respect for those women, but right now, we’re the models of this time. Significant? Maybe. Hardworking? For sure.”