You could be forgiven for assuming that today's supermodels have recently fallen upon harder times. It may therefore come as a surprise to know that while aspiring young fashion models hustle and bustle to glean any work they can on the catwalks, the flagships of the fashion industry still command million dollar contracts. Despite being forced to slash expenditure, leading fashion brands are still turning to marquee names and eye-catching faces to entice the aspiring public to make quality of life purchases.
Deserted by consumers in their droves amid rising unemployment, a credit crisis and fears of a prolonged recession, retailers have been forced to pare down prices and marketing budgets in line with falling sales. Although January's Paris and Milan fashion shows saw designers hire fewer models than the year before, it would appear that insecurity has driven cost-conscious advertising departments to familiar faces that have already launched a hundred best-selling brands. Leading model agencies such as London's Premier Model Management have halved their daily rates from £3,000 to £1,500 by increasing their use of more affordable 'commercial' catalogue models while cutting back on their engagement of high price 'image models' who frequent the catwalks and magazine covers. However, it seems that clients are reassured by the familiarity of the most expensive faces, exhausting both the feet of commercial models and the mobile phone batteries of the supermodels.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the commercialization of China we have witnessed the rise of a truly global fashion industry. This is reflected in the fact that today's supermodels derive from all corners of the globe, from São Paulo to Saint Petersburg. Although some of the more successful image models who retain their youthful figures can earn as much as $500,000 a year on the covers & catwalks, it appears that today's supermodels still command million dollar contracts despite the current crisis in confidence. To test this claim, we have determined what the leading supermodels earned in 2008, which contracts they won for 2009, and try to assess the 'je ne sais quoi' that made them priceless...