The models at Talent Management have been uber-excited about the Versace For H&M collection, which the designer Donatella Versace stressed was all about making the brand accessible to more people, in particular the younger, also known as poorer, generation.

At a recent press conference, Donatella even said: “I wanted to give [Versace] to a whole new customer, especially the younger crowd, through H&M.

“I know that with the H&M collection I’m going to reach a much wider audience than usual…When I’m going to see young people in the street wearing these iconic pieces it’s going to be fun.”

So you can imagine the controversy the Italian designer has caused here at the agency when we found out that she recently prevented a ‘real woman’ from modelling her collection in a photoshoot.

According to the New York Daily News, the publication had selected a range of recent graduates in high profile jobs, dubbed ‘New York’s new power players’, to model the new range.

Apparently, a H&M publicist explained that the shoot could probably not go forward because Donatella had to approve “anyone who wears the collection for press”, adding “Donatella will likely not approve shooting the collection on real women”.

And sure enough, when the Daily News sent the publicist photos of the women he wanted to use, one model was unacceptable because she “doesn’t fit [Versace’s] branding”.

So let’s get this right – Donatella has designed a collection for the masses and is happy for real women to buy her clothes, but of course she doesn’t want the masses modelling them. That would be crazy, right?

So much for the modern designer embracing diversity in models. Talk about contradictory, Donatella.