It is really a sparking industry with applaud and dispute as well. The supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model that usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture with customized printed labels and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and famous clothing brands. They have multi-million dollar contracts, endorsements and campaigns. They have branded themselves as household names and worldwide recognition is associated with their modeling careers.

They have been on the covers in beautiful clothes with printed labels of prestigious magazines such as French, British and Italian Vogue. Claudia stated, "In order to become a supermodel one must be on all the covers all over the world at the same time so that people can recognize the girls at first glance. Emerging in the late 1990s, Gisele became the first in a wave of Brazilian models to gain popularity in the industry and with the public. Following in her footsteps by signing contracts with Victoria's Secret, fellow Brazilians Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosia rose to prominence; however, this "new trinity" were unable to cross over into the world of TV, movies and talk shows as easily as their predecessors.

Several seasons later, they were followed by Eastern Europeans barely into their teens, pale, and "bordering on anorexic. They were too young to become movie stars or date celebrities; too skeletal to bag Victoria's Secret contracts; and a lack of English didn't bode well for a broad media career".

Criticism of the supermodel as an industry has been frequent inside and outside the fashion press, from complaints that women desiring this figure and outfit with printed labels become unhealthily thin to charges of racism, where the "supermodel" has generally to conform to a Northern European standard of beauty.