'No one wants to see curvy women': German designer

(AFP)

Curvy women have no place on the catwalk, iconic German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld was quoted as saying Sunday, after a magazine said it was banning skinny models in favour of "real women".

"No one wants to see curvy women," Lagerfeld was quoted as saying on the website of news magazine Focus.

"You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly," he added.

The world of fashion is about "dreams and illusions", he said, dismissing as "absurd" the debate prompted by Brigitte magazine which said it would no longer feature professional models on its pages.

Brigitte, one of Germany's top women's magazines, said last week it would only publish photographs of "real women" after readers complained they could not identify with the models depicted.