Iman: Fashion is No Place for the D-List

Attention, D-listers: Iman doesn't want you stepping on her Manolos anytime soon.

When asked what one thing about the fashion industry Iman believes has changed for the worse, The Fashion Show: Ultimate Collection star was quick to call out the increasing presence of celebs in the fashion world, "I wish they didn't have this open door to B, C, D list celebrities that fashion shows are being delayed and delayed for them to show up. And they're even being paid to show up! I think that's a disservice to the industry."

It's no surprise nowadays to see more coverage given during Fashion Week to who's who in the front row rather than who's who on the catwalk. And celebrities are becoming increasingly involved in the fashion industry in other ways: Jennifer Lopez and her twins (Max and Emme) are the face of Gucci, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have multiple clothing lines, high fashion house Emanuel Ungaro collaborated with Lindsay Lohan as a creative director. Talk about a fashion emergency.

Iman sees this as encroaching on the role fashion models used to play in the relationship between designer and design. "Models used to be muses and now they are no longer. Designers now have stylists so they don't really listen or collaborate with the models the way they used to."

(Let Iman show you how it's done. Check out some of her most iconic shots.)

Perhaps in an effort to remind people of this, Iman herself served as the muse for designers on the first episode of The Fashion Show: Ultimate Collection this season. But she was quick to call out the industry, and not the models themselves, for the shift in behavior, "It's not because there aren't many great fashion models, because there are. Coca Rocha is one of them. But no one is really giving them the opportunity to be muses."