Former supermodel Rebecca Romijn was honest about her opinion of dynamic duo Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, who’ve dominated both runways and fashion editorials in the last few years.
In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, 43-year-old Romijn was candid about the young fashion models, whose social media influence may have some correlation to their successful modeling careers.
“No one has proven yet that numbers of followers translates to revenue,” the X-Men star told ET on Tuesday, April 26. “So it is frustrating.”
Apparently, Romijn isn’t the only industry professional to feel this way. “I know a lot of people — legitimate fashion people — can’t stand it,” she continued. “Hate it that these, you know, social media stars are now the supermodels in fashion. They are not true supermodels.”
Jenner, 20, has more than 55 million followers on Instagram, while Hadid, 21, counts nearly 17 million followers.
Like Romijn, Calvin Klein recently opined about how he would not have chosen Jenner, 20, to front his iconic CK Underwear campaign, though he did express approval about Justin Bieber, who also posed for the brand. But Romijn targeted one important voice in the industry for feeding into the social media frenzy.
“The thing is, I have always looked to Vogue magazine to lead the way, not be a follower,” the model turned actress continued. “I rely on Vogue to set the standard, not follow what everybody else is doing. So I have been disappointed that fashion magazines have been supporting this trend of social media stars to set our style standards. But it will change; fashion always does.”
Prior to venturing into acting, Romijn started modeling in the ’90s and graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1999. She also posed alongside seven other top models in 2006. “I was the first model ever painted for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. They always have a section of painted swimsuits and the first year they did it was the year that I was on the cover,” she recalled to ET in her no-holds-barred interview. “That was not even my whole body — the painting was a swimsuit with a shirt tied over it. And that was a 13-hour paint job.”
Despite her thoughts about today’s top models, Romijn supports 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl, Ashley Graham.
“Ashley Graham is one of the most beautiful women I have ever laid eyes on,” Romijn said of the curvaceous brunette beauty, who is the first plus-size model to front the illustrious mag. “She is incredibly healthy and I think it’s fantastic that SI is opening up our standards of beauty to include somebody that a lot more people in our country can relate to. Women don’t get sexier than Ashley Graham — she is just as hot as can be.”
