Star City Models

An Australian supermodel, Gemma Ward was born on November 3, 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. Her birth name is Gemma Louise Ward and she is a second child of Gary and Claire Ward. In her family, besides her parents, she has an older sister Sophie Ward who is also a model and has younger twin brothers Oscar and Henry. She is 5 feet 9.5 inches tall with brown hair and green eyes. She completed her studies from Presbyterian Ladies College, Perth and Shenton College. Starting her career at a very young age of sixteen, Ward has walked the catwalks for big-name designers such as Valentino, Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Versace and Chanel. She was the youngest model in the modeling world, and was listed as one of the nine “It Girls” by American edition Vogue. In September 2004, she graced the cover of American Vogue becoming the youngest model doing so, and also featured on the cover of Teen Vogue magazine. Recalling her first break into modeling she said in an interview with Vogue, “I had come straight from my aunt and uncle’s farm, and I was wearing this big gray barn jacket with mud all over it. When the scout came up to me, I said, ‘No thank you’. But my friends were like, ‘Hell, yes!’ They forged my mum’s signature, and pushed me in front of the cameras”. She didn’t win the competition but Vivien’s Model Agency gave her a break. Ward has since been in huge demand working with big name brands such as Calvin Klein, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Swarovski, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Prada, Jil Sander, Rochas, Yves Saint-Laurent, Hermes, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Dior and Valentino. After Kate Moss, she has been the first model to be the face of Calvin Klein’s perfume “Obsession Night for Men” with model Drew Keilt. In summer 2007, Ward modeled for Prada handbag advertisement and appeared on magazine covers such as W, Vogue and Time Magazine’s Style and Design issue. One of the British Photographers Nick Knight said of Ward, “Gemma is one of the very, very few models who look as though they come from another dimension”. Inspired by her baby doll look, one of the fashion designers Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler said in his interview with Teen Vogue “She looked like no one else at the time. She was this alien, and fashion is always looking for newness”. Allure magazine in its 2006 October edition has described Gemma as “the model of the moment”. “We went through a period that was very va-va-voom, but now the pendulum has swung back. Gemma is ethereal, not earthy” says Allure’s creative director Paul Cavaco. Though Gemma has been best known for her modeling career, yet she also has passion for drama and acting. She has worked in a suspense thriller ‘The Strangers’ opposite Liv Tyler, as one of the three masked intruders. Her upcoming movie is Elissa Down’s ‘The Black Balloon’ with co-star Toni Collette and Rhys Wakefield. Other than movies, she has also performed in a music video “Daughters” by John Mayer. Gemma is among the world’s top earning models and is listed at number ten. Her earning is estimated to be $3 million. The first issue of Vogue India was graced by Ward, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, a well-known photographer. She also graced the cover and appeared on an inaugural issue of Vogue China in 2005. Altogether, Gemma has featured on 24 issues of Vogue magazine worldwide. According to Photographer Michael Thompson, “She’s an exotic blonde, the rarest of creatures”.

The famous Canadian Supermodel Shalom Harlow was born on December 5, 1973 in Oshawa, Ontario. Shalom is an elder sister of two brothers Chris and Nathan. She started her modeling career when she was in high school, after being discovered at Cure concert in Toronto. Since then she has walked the catwalks for fashion designers such as Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan and many more. Shalom’s career is not limited to modeling only, as she has been a well known actress and television hostess. Her career as an actress started in the year 1997, Some of her movies are ‘In & Out’ in 1997, ‘Cherry’ in 1999, ‘Head Over Heels’ in 2001, ‘Vanilla Sky’ in 2001, ‘The Salton Sea’ in 2002, ‘Happy Here and Now’ in 2002, ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ in 2003, ‘I Love Your Work’ in 2003, ‘Melinda and Melinda’ in 2004, ‘Game 6’ in 2005, and recently in year 2006 she appeared as Christy Tipilton in movie ‘The Last Romantic’. She has graced the covers of various fashion magazines and became a spokesperson for Chanel’s Coco fragrance. During her modeling and acting period she has hosted some of the Television shows. Her first show was MTV’s House of Style with fellow supermodel Amber Valletta in year 1996-1997, after that she hosted ‘When I Was a Girl’ in 2001 and ‘The Jury’ in 2004. Her other notable works include the well-famed June, 1998 Pirelli Calendar. Shalom in 2007, alone was a model, which in her thirties was the face of Tiffany & Co., Chloe, Tumi, Nautica and the famous Jones New York. Being such a big model she is sometimes considered a legend in the fashion industry. She is the thirteenth highest paid supermodel with earnings estimated of $2million as of 2007.

Ntalia Vodianova, a Russian Supermodel, was born in Gorky on February 28, 1982. Since her childhood she has gone through a very tight financial situation. From a very young age of 11 she helped her mother in her fruit-stall business and after that she started her own fruit-stall business at the age of 15 to help out her sisters. Around this  time she joined a modeling academy. Being Russian, Vodianova quickly learned English to change her life for the better and traveled to Paris to sign up with VIVA agency, when she turned 17. Soon, she became the new face of Gucci for their perfume line. Vodianova has appeared in numerous campaigns with Louis Vuitton, L’Oreal, Marc Jacobs, Miss Sixty, Pepe Jeans and Calvin Klein’s collection and his fragrance, “Euphoria”. In September 2005, she first featured with eight other top models and on the July 2007, Vodianova graced the American Vogue cover. She has walked on more than 40 runways and with that appeared in Calvin Klein spring show. Making a mark on a film career she appeared in a small role with co-star Billy Zane in Roman Coppola’s film CQ. In March 2007, US Vogue issue honored Vodianova for her dedication towards philanthropy. She married British real estate heir Justin Portman, a half brother of the 10th Viscount Portman, in Saint Petersburg on September 1, 2002. The couple has three children -  two sons Lucas Alexandra and newly born Viktor and a daughter Neva  – with whom she posed in Vogue.Vodianova was ranked at no.16 in Channel 5’s “World’s greatest Supermodel”. She is also called as Supernova. Forbes magazine named her seventh in the list of highest-earning models in the world. For the past year her earnings are estimated to be $4.5 million.

Daria Werbowy a Ukrainian-Canadian supermodel was born and grown up in Poland on November 19, 1983 but holds Ukrainian citizenship as well. When she was 14years, she was blessed with a good height of 5 feet 11 inches and willowy figure with blue eyes and brown hair which helped her step into the modeling world. After winning a national modeling contest in early age of 14, she switches over to Elite Models and began landing on various well known runways in Canada but couldn’t achieved much success. Though Daria had never taken modeling seriously but she soon found herself launched in Toronto’s Susan J. Model & Talent Management. Working for one year with Susan J. Model & Management she left the agency and followed Elmer Olsen’s Elite Canada’s and with this her modeling career began to expand exponentially. Under the guidance of International Management Group (IMG) she was able to get the small but secure position on the international modeling runway. Werbowy has modeled for Lancôme, Prada, Yves Saint- Laurent, Roberto Cavalli, Gucci, Hermes, Valentino, David Yurman, Missoni, Versace, Louis Vuitton and Chanel. She has marked her appearance on 21 covers of Vogue magazine. Daria, in her first season, Fall/Winter 2003 has graced the world’s two most desirable assignments: the cover of Vogue Italia {thrice) and Prada’s Fall/Winter ad campaign. In July 2007, Forbes listed Werbowy as the World’s ninth highest earning model. Her earnings estimated to be for $3.5 million. She is planning to quit modeling and to become a professional painter or to open her own gallery in her native place Mississauga, Ontario.

Karolina Isela Kurkova is a popular Czech supermodel. She was born on February 28, 1984 in Decin, Czech Republic to Josef Kurka, a Czech basketball player and a Slovak mother. Karolina is 5 feet 11 Inches tall with blonde hair and Green eyes. Her working agencies include DNA Model Management and Viva Model Management. She made her first walk on runway after been launched by agency in Prague and then she was soon into commercial ads and print work. She later moved to Milan to expand her modeling portfolio. There she got her first modeling assignment for the brand Prada. At a very young age of seventeen, Kurkova marked her appearance on the cover of the February 2001 Vogue issue. Kurkova marked herself to popularity and was considered a hot fixture in fashion shows. Kurkova continued to build upon her entry, doing modeling for well known fashion houses such as Yves Saint Laurent and print work for Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino, and others which helped increasing her popularity. She was named “Model of the year” at the 2002 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. Later, Karolina has walked the catwalks for designers such as Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Chanel and Balenciaga. Continue gracing the cover and editorials of high fashion magazines such as UK, US and French Vogue, Vanity Flair and The Face, she recently featured on the cover of Greek Vogue as well as Korea’s W. Kurkova also graced the 2006 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and probably best known as one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels. Her other notable includes working with prominent fashion photographers such as Steven Klein, Mario Sorrenti, Mario Testino. In addition to modeling, she is also set to make her film debut in Howard Himelstein’s coming-of-age dramedy, My Sexiest Year. According to Mario Testino, a well known fashion photographer, “The Proportions of her body and her face, as well as her energy level, make her a model who could fit almost into any moment”. Designer Marc Jacobs Said, “She has an angelic look with a dark side, she’s sweet and fun but looks like she could be an evil bewitching child”. After coming into contact with Vogue editor in New York in September 1999, she permanently moved there. Presently she resides in Florida. Kurkova is one of the highest earning models and is ranked eighth among World’s 15 top earning supermodels. Besides modeling her heart also beats for the welfare of children and in contribution to such work she has been honored by organizations such as “The Beautiful Life Fund”, “Free Arts”, and “Global Youth Action Network”. The non profit organization “Women Together awarded Karolina for her humanitarian work in March 2006.

Liya Kebede was born and grew up in Addis Ababa on January 3, 1978 in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian supermodel was discovered by a film director while she was attending Lycee Guebre Mariam. After completing her studies she moved to France to further her modeling career through Parisian agency. Liya proved herself in the fashion industry by modeling on the Paris, New York and Milan runway circuit. Her career kicked into high gear when Tom Ford offered her an exclusive contract for his Gucci Fall/Winter 2000 Fashion show. After signing such big modeling assignment she appeared on the covers of American, Italian, French, Japenese, and Spanish Vogue, i-D, Flair, V and Time’s Style & Design and has been the face of various ad campaigns including those for Gap, Yves Saint-Laurent, Victoria’s Secret, Tommy Hilfiger, Escada, Dolce & Gabbana , Revlon, Emanuel Ungaro, and Louis Vuitton. In 2003, Liya signed a contract with Estee Lauder cosmetics as their newest face with a contract rumored to be for $3million. In the Company’s 57-year history, Liya was the first ethnic African model to serve as their representative. She is one of the very few black models who have featured on the cover of US Vogue twice, in major fashion photo shoots and runway shows. Highlighting her humanitarian work in American Vogue, the issue of summer 2006 also featured her on the cover page. Apart from her modeling career, her versatility can be gauged from the fact that in 2005 she was appointed as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Liya has also made her appearance in two films -  The Good Shepherd, and Lord of War. Conor Kennedy, a booker at Elite Model Management in 2003 said, “It’s like there’s only room for one very successful black model at a time. For the past year it’s been Liya.” As of 2007 Kebede family resides in New York. She married Ethiopian hedge fund manager Kassy Kebede in 2000 and gave birth to a son Suhul in 2001 and daughter Raee in August 2005. In July 2007, Forbes ranked Liya as the eleventh highest earning model, estimated to be $2.5 million in the past 12 months.

Doutzen Kroes, a Dutch supermodel, was born in the town of Eastermar, in Friesland, The Netherlands on January 23, 1985. She is 5 feet 10 inches tall with blue eyes and blonde hair. Starting her career as a model, her first modeling assignment was for DNA Models. Kroes’s modeling portfolio began to expand exponentially, appearing on the cover page of Time, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Numero. She has appeared in numerous campaigns by Gucci, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Escada, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Versace and Neiman Marcus. Doutzen is known for her work in Victoria’s Secret catalog and graced their Fashion shows in 2005 and 2006. Kroes has made an appearance on the cover of American Vogue Issue in May 2007 with fellow models Raquel Zimmermann, Jessica Stam, Lily Donaldson, Agyness Dyen, Hilary Rhoda, Chanel Iman, Caroline Trentini, Coco Rocha, and Sasha Pivovarova. She was voted as ‘Model of the Year’ in 2005 by visitors of the website Vogue.com. Kroes has been considered spokesmodel for the Calvin Klein “Eternity” fragrance campaign in August 2005 and later signed a three year contract with L’Oreal Paris, in April 2006. In July 2007, Forbes listed Kroes fourteenth amongst the world’s 15 top earning Supermodels. Her earnings are estimated to be $1.5 million in past 12 months.

Hilary Rhoda was born on April 6, 1987 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She has completed her graduation from Holy Cross, a Catholic all-girls’ school. Being an all rounder,  she had fine athletic abilities and participated in her school’s field hockey and lacrosse teams. Beginning her career as a model she first signed a modeling assignment for International Management Group (IMG). In her short career she has given appearances in several ad campaigns with Balenciaga, Dolce& Gabbana, Giivenchy, Donna Karan, Gucci, and Ralph Lauren and also captured the most desirable modeling assignments: the cover of Vogue Italia, twice, Vogue Paris, and W. Hilary Rhoda regularly occupied the editorials of W, Harpers Bazaar while being a hot spot in the runways of Christian Dior couture to Marc Jacobs. Hilary has also made an appearance on the cover of American Vogue issue in May 2007 with fellow top models Doutzen Kroes, Caroline Trentini, Raquel Zimmermann, Sasha Pivovarova, Agyness Deyn, Coco Rocha, Jessica Stam, Chanel Iman and Lily Donaldson. Rhoda’s thick, dark expressive eyebrows, pale blue eyes, height and slightly large chin often compare her to Brooke Shields. In July 2007, Forbes listed Hilary as the world’s twelfth top earning supermodel. Her earnings are estimated to be $2 million in past 12 months. In January 2007, Rhoda was named the newest face of Estee Lauder. Currently, she appears in the Fall/Winter 2007 season Valentino campaign with fellow supermodels Gemma Ward and Daria Werbowy.

Carolyn Murphy was born on August 11, 1975 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Murphy, an American Supermodel started her career at a relatively young age of 16 with a modeling agency Mary Lou’s Models. She is 5 feet 8 inches tall with Blue eyes and Brown hair. At the initial stages of her career she modeled in local ads and magazines throughout Florida and Alabama. Her career took a leap when she got her hair bleached to platinum blonde for a photo shoot. But this caused a hair fall out and she had to get a short hair cut, which gave her a tremendous look leading to her popularity with many top photographers.

This lead to a sudden rise in her career as Murphy made appearances in high fashion magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. She has also graced the cover of the 2005 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue as well as the cover of 1999 Vogue as the “Model of the Millennium”.

Murphy’s profile includes appearing in the famed 2002 Playboy calendar. She was also named VH1-Vogue’s “Model of the Year” in the 1998 Fashion Awards. Her career took a turn and she was signed in Barry Levinson’s Liberty Heights in 1999. Being on the top of her career, she married a shop owner, Jake Schroeder and gave birth to their daughter Dylan Blue on December 28, 2000. Murphy with her husband and daughter once posed for Vogue as Kurt Cobain, Courtney love, and Frances Bean Cobain. The couple split in the year 2002. Then she started dating Brandon Boyd, but this relationship also came to an end soon in 2005.

Murphy has been considered the world’s 6th top earning Supermodel by the Forbes magazine in July 2007. Her earnings are estimated to be $5 million in past 12 months. Presently, busy with her modeling assignments, she is also the primary female spokesmodel in Estee Lauder.

A Brazilian Supermodel, Adriana Francesca Lima was born on June 12, 1981 in the northeastern coastal town of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Her parents Nelson Torres and Maria da Graca Lima are social workers. Adriana is 5 feet 10 inches tall with brown hair and green/blue eyes. She is presently working with an agency named DNA Model Management. Lima is the world’s fourth highest paid supermodel. Starting her modeling career at a relatively young age of 15, Lima won second place in the 1996 Ford Supermodel of the World contest. She also worked with Elite Model Management and after that appeared in international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. Her work-profile includes doing the catwalk for big-name designers such as Christian lacroix, Georgioa Urmani, Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren, Fendi, Valentino, Emanuel Ungaro and others. She is currently the spokesperson for Maybelline and Angel.

Her versatility can be gauged from the fact that she has acted in a BMW short film ‘Auteur Wong Kar-Wai’ directed by Hong Kong film director with co-stars Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker in year 2001. Adriana Lima established herself further in the profession after her work at the Fashion Show Victoria’s Secret. With modeling assignments with Maybelline, bebe, BCBG, and Mossimo to boot, Lima showed that she was right up there at the top.. She also occupied the cover page and editorials of high fashion magazines, ELLE, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue.

When she is away from the rigors of her profession, Lima prefers to pick a cool spot in her apartment with a novel of her favorite author Gabriel Garcia Marquez to keep her company.. Lima disclosed in an interview with GQ magazine that she was a virgin. She had relations in the past with celebrities such as Major league Baseball player Derek Jeter and Prince Wenzeslaus of Liechtenstein.

Lima’s profile includes appearing in the famedPirelli Calendar 2005 and Telecom Italia Mobile, Italy’s big cell phone carrier where she was dubbed as ‘Catherine Zeta-Jones’. On May 2007, she was chosen as one of People Magazine’s annual 100 Most Beautiful People in the world. Lima ranked 53rd on the Maxim Hot 100 2007. She placed 4th in 2006 and 2007 as the “Most Desirable Woman” by Askmen.com, the largest men’s lifestyle website.
Inspite of her busy professional life, Lima’s magnanimous heart also beats for the poor children living at “Caminhos da luz,” an orphanage in Salvador, Bhaia, where she is not only helping poor children, but also contributing to the construction work of the orphanage.