Sharon Feinstein

Fashion week in London and its full of the beautiful people. We expect them to be beautiful, the models as skinny as can be with sulky expressions and swaying walks. The celebrities and designers lining the front rows . The parties full of money and deals. I must say I’m bemused by the idea of beautiful English models, however, because the ones I’ve interviewed have been quirky, yes, red heads, freckled, pale, and maybe even highly intelligent. But beautiful, no. The Spanish, French, South American and certanly Thai girls are striking and stunning, but the English ones are by and large difficult to get excited about, even though Kate Moss appears to have held her own for two decades. I remember taking my daughter, Lara, with me to the model agency to interview Karen Elson, from Oldham, when La was about 11. Small and nervous as she was La still managed to sit there open-mouthed at the big glass table and stare at this girl from up North who was starting her first campaign and had won model of the year at some fashion awards or other. How come she’s a model, mum, she asked later. She’s not pretty! In fact Karen, now an international super model in the rich list, was pale, pink and had rather crooked teeth. But there must have been that inscrutable something because all those designers clearly weren’t wrong. I guess I just don’t associate this country’s girls with beauty. More like getting drunk on pavements, falling out of nightclubs and wearing too little in the icy winter . That other kind of sexy, mesmerising beauty belongs to other nations where the sun shines more.