Model Claudia Schiffer in blackface photo row

The German supermodel Claudia Schiffer is at the centre of a row about blacking up, seven months after the Dutch model Lara Stone was caught in a similar fashion scandal.

The photograph was taken by Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, who likes to moonlight as a photographer. It is actually a three-year-old photo, taken for a Dom Perignon ad campaign, but it has resurfaced as one of six alternate covers - all featuring Schiffer in various guises - for the 60th anniversary issue of the popular German magazine Stern Fotographie.

Schiffer's agent argues that the six photos (two of which are pictured above) are intended to depict different men's fantasies - she appears as a secretary, an Asian girl, Marie Antoinette, and as herself - and that "people should not jump to conclusions".

But Shevelle Rhule, fashion editor at the black women's magazine Pride, has told the Daily Mail the blackface shot is tasteless and offensive.

"There are not enough women of colour featured in mainstream magazines," she said. "This just suggests you can counteract the problem by using white models... No thought has been given to the history behind what they have done and the comparisons it draws with minstrel shows."

Rhule was one of many who criticised Paris Vogue for publishing a blackface photo of Lara Stone (above) last October. "It's horrible, there's nothing else to describe it," Rhule said at the time. "It's as if we've stepped back in time."

Stone, the subject of several controversial shoots during her career, married Little Britain star David Walliams in London last month.

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