The annual rankings conducted by Forbes saw changes in 2017, with entries of three new models: Chrissy Teigen, Bella Hadid and Ashley Graham – replacing Cara Delevingne, Candice Swinepoel and Miranda Kerr.
Who are the top-earning angels this year?
Top 10 highest-paid models 2017
- Kendall Jenner, 22, US$22 million
Kendall is one of the most influential persons from Kardashian-Jenner family tree, whose mother of six is Kris Jenner, 62.Kendall has walked and appeared in campaigns for Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs. She is currently the face of Estee Lauder and Calvin Klein Jeans and walked her first Victoria’s Secret show last year. She is in the same clan with Cara Delevingne, Gigi Hadid and Hailey Baldwin and is part of Taylor Swift’s squad too. - Gisele Bündchen, 37, US$17.5 millionBrazilian model Bündchen has been among the highest-paid models in the world since 2004. In 2014, she was listed as the 89th Most Powerful Woman in the World by Forbes. Bündchen was one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels from 2000 until mid-2007. Bündchen pioneered the “horse walk”, a stomping movement created when a model picks her knees up high and kicks her feet out in front. Bündchen married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2009. She supports many charities.
Kendall is one of the most influential persons from Kardashian-Jenner family tree, whose mother of six is Kris Jenner, 62.Kendall has walked and appeared in campaigns for Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs. She is currently the face of Estee Lauder and Calvin Klein Jeans and walked her first Victoria’s Secret show last year. She is in the same clan with Cara Delevingne, Gigi Hadid and Hailey Baldwin and is part of Taylor Swift’s squad too.
Brazilian model Bündchen has been among the highest-paid models in the world since 2004. In 2014, she was listed as the 89th Most Powerful Woman in the World by Forbes. Bündchen was one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels from 2000 until mid-2007. Bündchen pioneered the “horse walk”, a stomping movement created when a model picks her knees up high and kicks her feet out in front. Bündchen married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2009. She supports many charities.3. Chrissy Teigen, 32, US$13.5 million
Teigen married musician John Legend in 2013 and welcomed their daughter Luna in April 2016. The couple had been known to struggle with infertility. “The first little girl didn’t work, and then the second is Luna,” Teigen said.
This year, Teigen is expecting a second one, who will be a boy.
4. Adriana Lima, 36, US$10.5 million
Lima is the longest-running model for Victoria’s Secret, and was named the most valuable Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2017. The Brazilian catwalk star never fails to stun the crowd with her sexy figure. She has been a supermodel for Maybelline cosmetics since 2003. In 2014, Adriana Lima has split from her husband of five years Marko Jarić, former Serbian basketball player. They have two daughters together.
5. Rosie Huntington, 30, US$9.5 million
Huntington is an English model and actress. She is best known for her work for lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret, formerly being one of their brand “Angels”, and for being the face of Burberry’s 2011 fragrance. She featured the supporting role in 2011 film Transformer. She married English actor Jason Statham.
6. Gigi Hadid, 22, US$9.5 million
One of the youngest popular models on the social media, Gigi is singer Zayn Malik’s girlfriend, Victoria’s Secret model and Bella’s sister. Her supermodelling career skyrocketed since 2016.
7. Karlie Kloss, 25, US$9 million
Kloss, an American fashion model and entrepreneur, was best known as Victoria’s Secret Angel from 2011 to 2014. She is one of the favourite cover models for many global brands such as Coach, Nike, Donna Karan, Lacoste, Christian Dior among others.
8. Liu Wen, 29, US$6.5 million
Liu Wen (刘雯) had been one of the ten most paid models since last year. Born and raised in China, Liu is the first model of East Asian descent to walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, the first spokesmodel of East Asian descent for Estée Lauder and the first Asian model to ever make Forbes magazine’s annual highest-paid models list. In 2012, The New York Times named her “China’s first bona fide supermodel”. In 2017, she became the first Chinese model to ever appear on the front cover of American Vogue.
Known to be low-key on her Weibo and other social media platforms, Liu is often nicknamed “Da Biao Jie” which means “My older Cousin”.
9. Bella Hadid, 21, US$6 million
Bella became exponentially popular since this year, with 15.8 million followers on Instagram. Her ex-boyfriend was singer The Weekend. She was then rumoured to have a casual relationship with rapper Drake until recently. Bella is Gigi’s younger sister.
10. Ashley Graham, 30, US$5.5 million
“It shouldn’t be shocking” is what Graham says to The Guardian. She is a supermodel who aspires to add diversity and challenge into conventional model industry which has “a lack of curvy women”. She has appeared on the cover of fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, and Elle.
Top 10 highest-paid models 2016
