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NEW YORK - The best models not only are admired for their physical gifts, they also inspire an exploration of art, an examination of culture and a mad rush to buy clothes that might look utterly ridiculous to the untrained eye.

What these women have that other pretty girls don't, say fashion insiders, is the ability to convey personality as well as represent their moment in time.

They also have their own new exhibit at The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art called "The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion," which had a star-studded opening recently with a gala dinner hosted by Vogue's Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss and Justin Timberlake.

Photograph after photograph of the names and faces you know - Twiggy, Jerry Hall, Beverly Johnson, Iman, Moss and the trio of Christy Turlington Burns, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, known as "the Trinity" - hang on the hallowed walls of the museum's Tisch Galleries.

Also displayed are some of the clothes they introduced to the mainstream: The black gown with a white sash (among Yves Saint Laurent's first designs for the house of Christian Dior) worn by model Dovima, standing between elephants, in a Richard Avedon photo; the topless bathing suit Rudi Gernreich made in 1964 that, as demonstrated by Peggy Moffitt in a William Claxton photo, drew a sharp line between the elegant look of 1950s models and the "youthquake" of the '60s; and Brooke Shields' second-skin Calvin Klein jeans from 1980 that she wore so famously and so seductively at the young age of 15.

"We wanted to represent the women who pulled themselves away from the pack," explains curator-in-charge Harold Koda.

Celebrities including Madonna, Rihanna and Victoria Beckham walked the red carpet, but the models were the night's stars. Gisele Bundchen arrived with husband Tom Brady in a custom-made Versace minidress covered in blue pailettes, while Cindy Crawford wore a long, blue Versace with a plunging neckline and thigh-high slit.

Tyra Banks came in a black fishtail gown by Badgley Mischka, Lauren Hutton donned a navy-and-red strapless gown by Michael Kors and Heidi Klum wore J. Mendel gown made of layers of tulle and organza in varying shades of blue. Both Iman (in Donna Karan) and Moss (in a design by date Jacobs) donned one-shoulder metallic goddess gowns.

Twiggy returned to the red carpet-turned-catwalk in a cigarette trouser tuxedo, and Lauren Hutton came in a red-and-blue strapless Kors.

Camilla Morton, a contributor to Modelinia.com and muse to John Galliano, counts Lisa Fonssagrives - later Fonssagrives-Penn after marrying top lensman Irving Penn - as the first supermodel.

The connection to photography is important, according to Morton. Fashion houses used to have artists sketch their runway shows, similar to courtroom illustrations, and those were largely subject to interpretation and strokes of kindness, she says. Once photographs became de rigeur, models had to be picture-perfect, with the illustrator no longer able to shave off a few pounds here or enhance their curves there - or at least until the art of "retouching" was mastered.

They had to pay attention to posture, movement and the silhouette of their outfit, she says.

Noting the sexy and strong pose that Sunny Harnett puts her body just by a a slight twist of the shoulders while wearing a one-shoulder Madame Gres gown, Koda says she creates an entire backstory to the 1954 Richard Avedon photo taken for Harper's Bazaar.

Modeling is a talent, he insists, especially when a designer and his muse click so there is a back and forth of ideas. That's when they - often with additional help of a photographer - decide to move the meter of fashion's zeitgeist.

The perky, leggy and slim "it" girls of the '60s who rocked the mod minis couldn't stand up to the chic, clingy simplicity of Halston in the '70s. He gravitated to a model with a more glamorous look - as well as broader shoulders, curvy hips and a smaller bust.

A fully-clothed Lisa Taylor channeled the sexual revolution through her wide-leg stance normally reserved for men in Helmut Newton's pictures for Calvin Klein in 1975, and his photo of Cheryl Tiegs' volcano-top tango with Rene Russo for Vogue was glamorously suggestive.

In the '90s, Moss - and her waif-like frame, came along just as Jacobs debuted his grunge, street-style collection for Perry Ellis. It marked a sharp contrast from the womanly look that Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and the other "supes" wore so well throughout the '80s.

Moss has been on top of the game for years but she probably would not have made it had she been born to a different generation, Koda observes. Shalom Harlow, on the other hand, who only flirted with fame, probably would have been a star in bygone eras with her porcelain face, dark hair and ample bust.

When Crawford first walked through Kors' doors, the designer booked her on the spot, he recalls, and he had that same feeling - knowing he was seeing something special - when Bundchen and Carmen Kass did the same a decade later.

Kors still casts Kass, now 30, in his shows and ad campaigns. "For me, Carmen is an unbelievable chameleon - a yin and yang. She's super sexy and also super sporty. A beaded gown looks like a T-shirt on her and a T-shirt looks like a gown."

Coco Rocha, a staple of the modern runway, says models need to show they enjoy wearing beautiful clothes, but the good ones are equally happy in their own skin. They should be willing to use their own voice and change up their look, she says.

"I always wear what I'm comfortable in. If one designer doesn't like what I'm wearing, the next one will," Rocha says.

Kors is as interested in what models say and how they move - if not more so - than their appearance. "Beauty is one thing, but models are performers. ... They bring the clothes to life. I think the best models are not mannequins. For me, when I'm casting the show and really thinking about what they're going to wear, I think, if I was directing and producing a film, who would I put in that part?"

There certainly are up-and-coming stars, with Koda acknowledging the recent invasion of Eastern Bloc beauties, but he's unsure if there'll be another supermodel "moment" when the glamazon was at the center of pop culture. "I think the supermodel era was the intersection of commerce, clothes and celebrity - and it might not happen again."

The exhibit indeed focuses on that heyday, from 1947-1997. It runs through Aug. 9.

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