After a week of walking lessons, test shoots, magazine castings, “go-see’s” with fashion designers and a beauty confidence seminar, 51 young women from around the globe strutted there stuff in New York Wednesday night in a bid to win hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of modeling contracts in the Ford Models Supermodel of the World contest.

    “I know none of your shoes fit. I know you must hate all of your clothes. But a true model transcends all of that,” Carmen Dell’Orefice told the models. At 76, the white-haired Dell’Orefice is commonly referred to as “the world’s oldest working model.”

    Fifty of the models won competitions in their homelands to gain a place in the final of the competition that began more than a quarter of a century ago, while the 51^st was chosen from entries submitted on MySpace. After gracing the catwalk twice - once in black and white outfits and once in brightly colored designs - the 2007/08 winners were announced.

    Alexina Graham from Britain and Nicole Faveren Vasquez from Peru were each awarded $100,000 contracts with Maybelline, although a language barrier meant the Peruvian model struggled to understand exactly what she had won.

    Ford model Chanel Iman and bearded ladyboy MC Andre J then handed out five contracts with the modeling agency. Britain’s Graham and Jacquelyn Jablenski from the United States each picked up $50,000 contracts, while Lithuania’s Vilita Bitvinskyte and Russia’s Natalia Belebrevik walked away with $100,000 contracts.

    The main prize of a $250,000 contract with Ford was awarded to Korea’s very excited Seung-hyun Kang (wearing the long pink skirt). And what a better to celebrate at a giant afterparty — at least for those over 21 — than with cocktails and mini cheeseburgers!