German designer lashes out at Heidi Klum

Top German designer Wolfgang Joop has lashed out at supermodel Heidi Klum by saying she is "too heavy" to be a runway queen. According to fashion experts, Heidi has too big a bust and hips and is too short to be a model.

The new series of 'Germany's Next Top Model' () kicks off tonight on Pro 7 with Heidi as the host once again. She has been a supermodel since the early 90s and has cast her professional eye over young girls for three seasons, deciding who has the looks to cut it in the modelling world and who doesn't.

Now her fellow German fashion veteran Wofgang Joop (64) has launched an extraordinary attack on the successful runway star, saying she doesn't have what it takes to be a top model herself. "No way," Joop (64) told BILD. "She is no runway model! Heidi Klum is simply too heavy and has too big a bust. And she always grins so stupidly. That is not avant-garde that is commercial!"

Would the beautiful Heidi not be able to win her own show? The designer is not the only person in the business to feel this way about the star. Model agency head Louisa von Minckwitz (45, 'Louisa Models') said: "Heidi has hips and voluptuous curves. Ideal measurements for a catwalk model are 87-58-88."

Von Minckwitz also thinks Heidi is too short: "At 1.76 metres she is five centimetres too short. But, despite everything, she is a dream woman, an advertising icon and a superstar." Fashion guru Karl Lagerfeld (75) also snubbed the German model: "I don't know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn't know who she is."

Heidi shouldn't let the critics get to her. Even as a 36-year-old mother of three, she is still in huge demand as a model and continues to strut her stuff as a Victoria's Secret Angel in the lingerie label's famous fashion shows. Readers of this month's GQ magazine won't be complaining either as she bares all for a hot cover shoot. The German beauty is also a popular presenter and was one of the hosts of last year's Emmys.