Over the weekend, it has emerged that some renowned German designers and fashion insiders did not see Heidi Klum as a model in the most basic sense of the word. She was too fat and too commercial to ever be a catwalk queen. Wolfgang Joop, the first to start the tirade against Klum, is again at it, telling Bunte magazine she is just an “ad girl with a permanent grin.”

Heidi Klum is 36 and a mother of three. At the same time, she is also one of Victoria’s Secret most famous Angels, and has more offers from beauty and fashion brands than she can probably count. However, this will not cut it, Joop says. She is not a catwalk model no matter how you look at it because, at the end of the day, she is just an ad girl of “standard beauty” and no personal appeal whatsoever, the famous designer believes.

“She is not a top model, but an ad girl. Who in high fashion has this permanent grin? She doesn’t have a nice mouth even when she isn’t grinning. She has a large frame, but small facial features. The small nose, her eyes are too close together, she has thin lips – it is all too small for her bulky body.” Joop tells Bunte. Heidi Klum, the designer adds, “has nothing to do with high fashion. She has that standard look of perfection – down to the perfectly dyed hair.”

After Joop went to the media over the weekend, calling Klum “too heavy” and certainly the last person on earth to host the “Germany’s Next Topmodel” competition, Heidi responded by taking the diplomatic approach. Everyone’s free to speak their mind, the model told the media at the launch of Victoria’s Secret Makeup Spring Look Kit in New York. Her focus is on being healthy and not so much on meeting the strict standards that the fashion industry imposes on all models with no exception.

“It’s a life where everyone can say what they want to say and everyone can have their opinion – that is his. In this business you have to be fit, but I always try to be a good role model and not too thin.” Klum explained on the occasion, in what was seen as yet another stand against size 0 model and promoting a healthier lifestyle.