Erin O'Connor isn't tall, she jokes. She just never stopped growing.

Erin O'Connor isn't tall, she jokes. She just never stopped growing.

"It was when I outgrew my dad - at the age of 15 - that it became testing for me."

Now six foot one and described by Karl Lagerfeld as "one of the best models in the world", she is less supermodel, more a force of nature.

"I've been in and out of fashion a hundred times. That's the game. But I have never 'peaked' - and that has given me the potential to have a long career."

People seem to identify with O'Connor - Vogue cover girl and face of M&S - more than with other models.

Perhaps it's because of her working-class, Walsall background. Or maybe because her unusual looks are so intriguing.

"I don't think I was different to anyone else as a teenager, in that I thought it was important to fit in. I wasn't teased. It was as if I imposed my own discomfort. I was aware that I just wasn't going to stop growing. I felt that my body betrayed me."

It was a help, though, that in a family of three sisters they were all different shapes, she adds. "One of my sisters has bounteous boobs. The other is rounded. I got the height. We all agree that we covet something that the others have."