Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer join the Balmain Army

Move over Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, the real supermodels are back and are taking over the Balmain Army. Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of the French design house, has enlisted Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell for the spring/summer 2016 campaign and they do not disappoint.

The models, now all in their forties, have not lost an iota of the charm and poise they possessed in their early 1990s shots for the likes of Chanel and Versace. This latest campaign, shot in black in white, sees them posing against a wall in the monochrome tight ruffled silks and lattice designs and rich suedes of the upcoming Balmain collection.

The campaign, revealed on Rousteing's Instagram on 7 January, was shot by Steven Klein who has worked with the women for more than 20 years and employed the same signature stark black and white photographic style that he channelled over his career.

Rousteing, 30, has clearly had his mind on this reunion for some time with gushing Instagram comments underneath his posts as well as hashtagging #dreamcometrue.

U made me love FASHION yesterday , U make me love FASHION today , and U re going to make me Love FASHION in the FUTURE

Speaking to Vogue.com, the designer said the campaign was important to prove Balmain was more than just about social media. Given he is a prolific Instagrammer with two million followers, this is certainly a conclusion that could be drawn, however the fashion will always be the most important to him.

"All the people who love Balmain have this nostalgia of the power of fashion in the 1990s when models were iconic — and this is always what I push," Rousteing told Vogue. "When you love Balmain, you love Cindy, you love Naomi, and you love Claudia. It's natural because they are iconic, they are powerful, and they are strong — and they make a lot of people love fashion."

Campbell, Schiffer and Crawford became household names during the 1990s, dominating catwalk and editorials with the likes of Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista; the latter famously defined their fame with the phrase "we don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day".