Million Dollar Beauties

Who are the girls getting booked for the biggest shows and ad campaigns right now? Models.com has a variety of rankings for the hottest models in the industry, but let's look at the top 5 women of its Top 50 list.

No. 5 Cara Delevigne

No. 4 Karmen Pedaru

 No. 3 Liu Wen

No. 2 Saskia de Brauw

No. 1 Joan Smalls

If you haven't noticed, these girls are everywhere right now and I am loving the eclectic mix of racial backgrounds. Topping the list is Puerto Rican-born Joan Smallls, who is the first Hispanic model to become the face of Estée Lauder's global ad campaigns. Super fierce Dutch model Saskia de Brauw comes in next followed by China's first major supermodel, Liu Wen. At number 4 is Estonian beauty Karmen Pedaru, and number 5 is British IT girl Cara Delevigne who I absolutely love. 

Forbes.com on the other hand has a different list and it's for the highest-paid models of 2013. It includes industry veterans Gisele Bundchen at number 1, Miranda Kerr at number 2, Adriana Lima at number 3, and Kate Moss at number 4. Then we have Liu Wen at number 5, the first Chinese model to walk the Victoria's Secret fashion show. According to the Boston Consulting Group, China's fashion market which is experiencing exponential growth, will triple in size by 2020. Liu Wen's spot on the list of highest-paid models shows us the increasing luxury purchasing power of the Far East. Read more about it at the Telegraph with its very interesting article, Liu Wen and the rise of the Asian catwalk queens. There's no surprise if Liu Wen continues to enjoy the steady stream of bookings in the years to come. I'm just happy Asian girls have more and more supermodels they can identify with and the world's view on traditional standards of beauty is now being challenged.