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Fashion models of Canadian designers flaunt cigarettes on Milan runway

When we think about smoking as it relates to fashion, it probably brings to mind the smoking slippers of the Victorian era and French designer Yves Saint Laurent's game-changing "Le Smoking" pantsuit for women, which led to the androgynous womenswear craze that's become a mainstay in modern fashion.

The actual act of smoking has certainly helped many a model curb their appetites to stay stick-thin in times past, but just when you thought society had come to a general consensus that smoking is no longer glamourous, nor cool, Canada's fashion duo Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared2 decided to send their models down the runway at Milan Fashion Week holding cigarettes — some even toting bejewelled cigarette holders in an effort to glitz up the health-hazardous even more.

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As reported by the UK's Daily Mail, the models weren't actually smoking the cigarettes, due to the indoor smoking ban in Milan. The designers, however, were filmed smoking indoors — while in the presence of their teenage models, no less. This can be seen on the video they shared of the pre-show prep.

While the designers have refused to comment on the scandal thus far, other industry insiders have been sharing their opinions about Monday's 1960s prom night-inspired show. "It is a distraction to the show, to the presentation of the collection," Canadian womenswear designer, David Dixon, told the Toronto Star. "That would be a problem for me as a designer — that people are paying more attention to the props than they are to the collection."

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According to Dixon, very few models are taking up smoking these days. That makes it all the more bizarre that the Caten brothers are trying to sell this image of the modern, stylish woman puffing on a cigarette.

This isn't the first time a designer has sent a model down the runway with a cigarette, and it likely won't be the last. During last year's F/W Paris Fashion Week, everyone's favourite bad-girl supermodel Kate Moss traipsed down the Louis Vuitton catwalk in black hot-pants, lit cigarette in hand, despite the indoor smoking ban in Paris. Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs explained to The Guardian that "the women in this show were all characters, not just anonymous girls."

And Kate Moss' character happened to smoke? Let's just hope the fashion world has learned a lesson from Dsquared2's unfortunate misstep.