Most Successful Super Models of the 2000’s
Josie Maran
Josie Maran is a 41 year old American model, actress and entrepreneur. Josie is from Menlo Park, California, which is on the eastern edge of the SanFrancisco Bay area. From sixth all the way through high school Josie attended the all-girls Castilleja School in Palo-Alto. It was there in early high school when a woman asked her to do a model photo shoot in San Francisco. The shoot went well and a modeling scout saw the photos. Josie was still too young to turn pro but the model scout told her she could potentially have what it takes to become a model. When Josie was only 17 she signed with the Elite Modeling Agency of Los Angeles. Just a few years later in 1998, Josie got on the cover of Glamour magazine. This is when her career really took off. She was then the featured Guess? girl in their summer and fall catalogs in ’98 as well. Josie started to get a lot of work after this. She did around 25 commercials and was even featured in a Backstreet Boys music video for their song “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” She was the girl bitten in the neck by Howie D, who was playing Count Dracula.
Josie then moved over to New York City to further her modeling career. She landed a multi-year deal with the cosmetic company Maybelline and was featured in the annual issue of Sports illustrated Swimsuit Issue for three consecutive years from 2000-2002. This was around the time Josie started acting in films. In 2001, she played the lead role in the independent movie The Mallory Effect. In 2002 she appeared in the film Swatters as the character Susan. In 2004 she played a French model in Little Black Book, played the cigarette girl in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and was featured in Van Helsing as one of Dracula’s wives. In 2007 she was on Dancing With the Stars but was the first team eliminated. Also in 2007, she started her own cosmetics business called Josie Maran Cosmetics. Her products on sold at the retail chain store Sephora and on the QVC network.
Adriana Lima
Adriana Lima is a 38 year old model and actress from Salvador, Brazil. Adriana is a Pardo Brazilian, which means she is mixed of many ethnicities. She is part Brazilian, African, Swiss, Native, Japanese and West Indian. Adriana won many beauty pageants in Elementary school but never really thought she would become a professional model. Her first model contest she entered was only at the request of a friend who didn’t want to enter alone. When Adriana was 15 she entered and won Ford’s “Supermodel of Brazil” competition. Her name was put into Ford’s “Supermodel of the World” competition which she placed second. Three years later when she turned 18, Adrianna moved to New York City and signed with Elite Modeling Management. Adriana found instant success in her new career. She got on the cover of Marie Claire Brazil in 1999 and got on the Italian and Brazil Vogue magazine covers in 2000. Also in 2000, Adriana became the Guess? girl and was the main feature in that year’s fall ad campaign. Adriana is best known for being the longest and one of the most prominent member of Victoria’s Secret Angels. She walked her first Victoria’s Secret runway when she was 17 and was contracted to be an official Angel in 2000. That contract lasted until 2018 making her the longest running Angel in their history. In 2017, the company labeled Adriana as “the most valuable Victoria’s Secret Angel.” Adriana is also well known for being a spokesperson for Maybelline cosmetics since 2003 and for her Super Bowl and Kia TV commercials. Since 2014, Adriana has been in Forbes magazine as the world’s 2nd highest paid model.
Lara Stone
Lara Stone is a 35 year old Dutch super model. Her signature look of her large lips and having a gap-tooth influenced a new trend of how models looked. This paved the way for other models like Georgia May Jagger, Ashley Smith and Lindsey Wixson. Lara is from a small Dutch town called Mierlo in the Southern-Netherlands. Lara was discovered on a Paris Metro when she was just 12 years old vacationing with her family. Three years later in 1999 Lara entered the Elite Model Look competition. She did not place but still judges were impressed with her and she signed with Elite Modeling Agency. The first 6 years of her career were stagnant so Lara left Elite and signed with IMG Models. In January of that year she made her catwalk debut for the Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci. Lara has said she doesn’t really enjoy catwalk shows because her shoe size is a size 7 and all the shoes in the shows are at least a size 8, so it’s hard for her to walk the runway in them. In 2007 she made it on the cover of Vogue Paris in the April issue. Around this time Lara was really making a name for herself and her career was taking off. The New York Time’s Fashion Critic, Cathy Horyn, named Lara “the anti model” because she was so unique and unconventional to what a model was back then. New York Magazine put her as number 2 for their “Top Ten Models to Watch” in the upcoming New York Fashion Week. Since then Lara has become one of the most prominent super models in the world. She has walked for high-end fashion designers like; Isabel Marant, Giles Deacon, MaxMara, and Christopher Kane. She has closed fashion shows for top fashion houses like Marc Jacobs, Chanel and Balmain. Her campaigns include huge name brands like Louis Vitton, H&M, Jeager, Versace and Calvin Klein. In 2010 and 2011 she placed #7 on the Forbes’ World’s Top Earning Models list making around $4.5 million a year.
Raquel Zimmerman
Raquel Zimmerman is a 36 year old Brazilian super model from Rio Grande do Sul. Vogue Paris has named her as one of the top 30 models of the 2000’s. Raquel was discovered at 14 years old in the city of Porto Alegre by a scouting agency. She then moved to Japan to model professionally then moved on to Paris. In 2000, when she was just 17 she got on the cover of Vogue Italia. Raquel went on to become a huge name in the industry and still is. She has campaigned for huge brands like Louis Vuitton, Zara, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Gucci, H&M, Dolce & Gabbana and several more. She regularly has been featured in top fashion magazines like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, Elle, and many more. James Scully, a top casting agent for runway shows once said about Raquel, “I think she is the only model of the last ten years who never goes out of fashion. It’s as though she never ages yet gets better-looking each season. Probably the most versatile model of all, she truly could be in any show.” Recently in 2018, Raquel was labeled the new ambassador for Revlon cosmetics.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is a 32 year old English model, actress, designer and business woman. She is best known for being one of Victoria’s Secret prestigious Angels. She was also the face of Burberry’s 2011 fragrance campaign for “Burberry Body.” Rosie was born on the south coast of England to an Aristocratic family. When Rosie was 15 years old she got an internship at a medaling agency in London. By 16 years old she was signed as one of their clients. Her first professional modeling gig was for a Levi’s Jeans commercial. In 2004, Rosie got her first big break when she shot for Teen Vogue in New York. Later that same year in the spring, she made her catwalk debut alongside Naomi Campbell. In early 2006 she walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and was officially an Angel by 2010. Also in 2010, Rosie acted as a supporting character in the big blockbuster film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It was the third installment of the Transformers film series. She also acted in the 2015 critically acclaimed film: Mad Max: Fury Road. Rosie also had an extremely lucrative modeling career so far in the 2010’s.
Molly Sims
Molly Sims is a 46 year old American model and actress from Kentucky. She is best known for having appeared in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue many times. Her first appearance was in 2000 and was in it for two more consecutive years, 2001 and 2002. She also appeared in the issue in 2004 and once more in 2006, where she wore an all diamond bikini designed by Susan Rosen worth $30 million. Molly was Old Navy’s spokesperson, who said the famous tagline “You gotta get this look.” Molly also has an acting career in Hollywood productions. She played Delinda Deline in the NBC television show Las Vegas, which is about the staff working at a fictional resort and casino on the strip of Las Vegas. She was in the viral “Jizz in My Pants” music video by The Lonely Island as the girl with Andy Samberg. Molly has also been featured in many comedy films such as Fired Up, The Bench Warmers, Yes Man and The Pink Panther 2.
Miranda Kerr
Miranda Kerr is a 36 year old model from Sydney Australia, raised in New South Wales. At age 13, Miranda won the annual Dolly/Impulse modeling competition. After her pictures came out in the magazine, the local media was critical about the young age of girls in the fashion industry. Her pictures included her in bathing suits and some media outlets wrote about if the pictures were encouraging pedophilia. When asked about the controversy years later Kerr said that “They just made something out of nothing.” In 2001, Kerr became an ambassador to Australia’s most notable swimwear brand, Seafolly, which made her name known internationally. In 2004, she signed to NEXT Model Management and began walking many runways for prominent labels. She also started getting more print campaigns. Kerr booked prominent fashion magazines like Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Australian Vogue. Her signature trademark is her large dimples. In 2006, Kerr was featured in the tv show Project Runway, modeling clothes made by designer Daniel Vosovic. Also that year she signed a contract for the domestics brand Maybelline New York. Kerr became a huge super model when she signed on as a member of Victoria’s Secret Angels. She was then picked to become the face of PINK. Her name and prominence rose quickly as she took part in the annual Victoria’s Secret runway shows which are televised and aired to four continents. In 2007, Kerr signed on to be the face of Californian fashion retailer Arden B and in 2008 became the face of the fragrance Clinique. In 2009, Kerr launched her own brand of organic skin care products called KORA Organics. Since 2008, Kerr has been featured in Forbes’ highest earning models list. In 2009, it was estimated she earned around $9 million that year. Miranda Kerr has been ranked in many magazines’ “Sexiest Women of All Time” lists.
Alek Wek
Alek Wek is a 42 year old South Sudanese/British super model who is well known for changing the perceptions of beauty in the fashion industry. She is from the Dinka ethnic group in South Sudan. Her family fled the country to Britain in 1991 to get away from the carnage of the civil war going on at the time. Alek was born in a two-bedroom house with no electricity or running water. She also has 8 brothers and sisters. When Alek was 14 she enrolled in London’s College of Fashion. When Alek was 18 years old she was discovered at an outdoor market. Shortly after that she was featured in a music video by Tina Turner. In 1996, she signed to Ford Models. That year she also appeared in a music video for Janet Jackson. In 1997, MTV named her the “ Model of the Year.” She was also on the cover of Elle magazine that year, making her the first African model to be on the cover. Back then dark skinned models were very rare in the fashion industry. Alek’s mainstream success was celebrated by black communities all over the world. She paved the way for many dark skinned models, including her niece, Ataui Deng. Oprah Winfrey once spoke of Alek saying “If Alek had been on the cover of a magazine when I was growing up, I would have a different concept of who I was.” Alek has walked runways for many notable fashion houses including; Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Banana Republic, Christian Dior, Ralph Lauren and several others. She has starred in print campaigns for huge brand names like Marc Jacobs, Ann Taylor and Moschino. Alek has also designed handbags that are sold in selected Selfridges department stores. They are called “Wek 1933” and are inspired by the brass-clasp briefcase carried by her father when she was growing up.
