THE Australian fashion world is in a frenzy over the arrival of supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista, for an Aussie fashion spectacular this week.
Myer/Grace Brothers, the department store chain that has flown them in for a summer fashion launch, estimated to be costing more than A$1 million (HK$5.2 million), is being lauded by many in the industry as staging a coup that will boost Australian fashion worldwide.
The hype surrounding the event - a five-day tour and a 90-minute fashion special to be televised live tomorrow night - is such that one hair stylist is rumoured to have offered to pay Myer for the privilege of doing Schiffer's hair.
But others in the industry are wondering whether the availability of the supermodels for a trip Down Under reflects their fading stardom waning stars in Europe, where the starving waif look is in vogue. Expressing a view summed up by one headline writer as, ''superseded or supermodels?'', one industry observer has doubted whether the pair would have been available two years ago.
Next door at Myer's major competition, David Jones, spokesmen are playing down the visit and wondering whether the average Myer customer even knows who Schiffer and Evangelista are.
''Does she wear the sort of clothes these models are regularly photographed wearing in magazines? I think probably not,'' sniped David Jones' fashion merchandise director, Malcolm Sykes.
Myer has hit back, by poaching David Jones, head choreographer for its supermodel special.