AN INVASION of eastern European models will today rule the runways of London fashion week. More than half the mannequins sashaying down the catwalks of Kensington will have names like Anya, Magdalena and Olga.

A generation after Eva Herzigova used her figure in the Wonderbra advertisements to beckon “Hello boys”, younger — and thinner — versions of her have arrived to dominate the world’s haute couture shows.

They may look pale, bored and almost translucent, but designers cannot see enough of them. At last season’s New York fashion week Calvin Klein, the American designer, did not send a single US model down the catwalk: 12 of his 22 models were from Russia and the former Soviet bloc.

This week a “good half” of the 300 girls on parade in London will be from eastern Europe, according to the Association of Model Agents (AMA).

With their tall, thin bodies, the Slavic-look models are often closer to the “size zero” figures demanded by some designers than their western counterparts. Their growing presence poses a threat to supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. Fashion industry insiders warn that the rapid expansion of the “Russian doll” is pushing down modelling fees.

In New York last week some girls were not paid at all but were allowed to keep the clothes they modelled.

London at least has a minimum wage for models agreed with the organiser, the British Fashion Council, but it starts at just £100 a show and rises on a scale to £330.

Those happy times when Linda Evangelista could boast that she would not get out of bed for less than $10,000 are long gone. The top fee for any model in London this week is unlikely to exceed £2,000 for doing one exclusive show.

Laurie Kuhrt, chairman of the AMA, said: “There has been an enormous influx of east European girls. The reason is that they are very beautiful. They have got the bone structure and slightly almond-shaped eyes and lips and are incredibly photogenic. They have become the look that everyone wants.

“There are scouts all over eastern Europe, finding people in unlikely places where previously they would have been allowed to get on with their lives. Suddenly they find themselves discovered in a field in Croatia and whisked off to an agent in London.”

Kuhrt’s FM model agency is providing two east European girls — Olja Ivanisevic, an 18-year-old blonde from Serbia, and hazel-eyed Kinga Rajzak, 19, from Hungary — for shows by Marc Jacobs, the celebrated US designer making his London debut, and Giles Deacon, the young British designer.

What creates the east European look? “It is probably the water,” said Karolina Kurkova, 22, a Czech blonde. She became the face of Tommy Hilfiger and then took over at Victoria’s Secret lingerie from Gisele Bundchen, the highest-paid of the previous most in-demand type, the Brazilian model.

Kurkova, who is said to feed caviar to Bella, her shih tzu, believes that something in the eastern bloc fluoridation process has helped to change east European women from muscle-bound weightlifters to lithe sex kittens.

Even Storm, the essentially British model agency which discovered Moss, is fielding seven east European girls in London.

Simon Chambers, a director of the agency, said: “They have high cheekbones and faces that shoot very well. They are tall and long-limbed. Perhaps it is something to do with the amazing power they have in athletics.”

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