kendallgigigrazia Credit: Getty Images

Update: Gigi Hadid’s mum, Yolanda, addresses Stephanie Seymour 

Social media has changed the modelling world immeasurably. In 2016, the amount of Snapchat and Instagram followers a model brings to a photoshoot is equally as important as perfecting her pout. In April Rebecca Romijn lamented that “social media stars are now the supermodels in fashion” speaking specifically of Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid. Now, her fellow original supermodels Naomi Campbell and Stephanie Seymour have joined in the KenJi bashing.

Speaking to Vanity Fair at last week’s amfAR Inspiration Gala, Seymour, 47, said that what Kendall and Gigi do is “completely different” to a supermodel and that they don’t belong in the same category.

“Supermodels are sort of the thing of the past,” Seymour said. “They deserve their own title. Kendall and Gigi are beautiful girls, and I support all of them, but they need their own title,” jokingly (?) suggesting “Bitches of the moment! That would be a good title for them.”

She also expressed her relief that there weren’t so many cameras around to document everything she got up to in her modeling heyday.

“I’m so glad social media didn’t exist during our time. I’m a private person, and sharing everything feels odd to me. And because there weren’t cameras around us all the time, we got away with so much more and had so much more fun.”

stephanieseymournaomicampbellgraziaCredit: Getty Images 

Coincidentally, Naomi Campbell had a similar conversation with Time this week. She managed to say a bit less than Stephanie, the 46-year-old preferring to talk only about her own experience, saying she learnt to model the “real” way and that she seeks the validation of the industry – not social media followers.

“I’m happy with the way I did my career, I wouldn’t change it in a million years,” she insisted. “I got to do the real grafting and learning from real models when I was younger — how to open up a jacket, walk, and such.

“I think it’s always good to learn a craft from scratch the real way, so that you’ve learned it from the basis, the raw bones, and then you have that to fall back on. I personally wouldn’t want it any other way.

“The respect from the people in the industry that matter is important to me and I do think I have that,” she continued. “No one can take that away from me.”

The battle of the original supermodels vs the new guard continues.