Every bit as buzzy as the clothes? The catwalkers who stomp down the runways wearing them. As the cult of personality surrounding supes continues to balloon, 2014 proved a banner year—party girl-cum-model types, the Gigis and Kendalls of the world reigned supreme, ubiquitous to the top shows and gossip rags alike. Hopefully they’re taking notes from perennial favorites like Kate and Cara, two faces of whom the public never seem to tire.
Here, 20 of the year’s biggest model moments.
Photo: Courtesy of Estée Lauder1/20Kim may have done her best to break the Internet with a diabolical combo of body oil and sheer determination, but 2014 saw Kendall Jenner assume her position as one of the most compelling Kardashians. Since donning a wig for Marc Jacobs' Fall outing back in February, the 19-year-old has racked up a runway CV that would put many to shame. Lagerfeld's trip to Salzburg marked her 19th turn on the catwalk—and that's to say nothing of editorial work that included covers for Love and Dazed. (She donned both Junya and Marc for the latter.) November saw her announced as the fresh new face of typically traditional cosmetics titan Estée Lauder. Who says youth is wasted on the young?
2/20You've come a long way, baby. Moving from Real Housewife spawn to covering CR Fashion Book is no small feat. Making her runway debut for Fall, Gigi Hadid started small with Desigual but gained steam opening and closing Jeremy Scott. Come Spring and lo, the feline beauty could be found on catwalks from Marc to Gaultier to Chanel. Hadid even managed to squeeze in a Sports Illustrated Swim turn; campaigns for Tom Ford beauty, fragrance, and eyewear; and a coup in the 2015 Pirelli Calendar—when she wasn't palling around with BFF, Kendall, bien sûr.
Photo: Carly Erickson / BFAnyc.com3/20The metamorphosis from reality-TV ingenue to bold-faced model is an intriguing proposition, to be sure, but it can hardly hold a candle to Andreja Pejic's journey. The androgynous model (formerly Andrej) underwent sex reassignment surgery early this year and opened up to the press—Style.com included—in a frank and compelling way about her SRS and experiences as a transgender model.
Photo: Steven Meisel / Courtesy of Pirelli4/20The launch of the Pirelli Calendar is regarded as a newsworthy happening in and of itself, but this year's edition brought even buzzier assets to the table. While a curvy Sophie Dahl was shot for the tire titan by Herb Ritts back in 1998, this year's Steven Meisel-lensed images included Pirelli's first-ever formally identifying plus-sized girl, Candice Huffine. For her turn as Miss April, the Maryland-bred size-16 model donned a latex corset. And landmark moment in the fight against sizeism or no, damned if she didn't look good.
Photo: Mario Testino / Courtesy of Burberry5/20Some things never get old. Cases in point: Kate and Cara. Two of Britain's chief exports remain a source of perennial interest, near-deities for whom the notion of "overexposure" bears no relevance. And while they're good apart, together they're great. The pair stripped down—save only for the iconic trench—for Mario Testino's My Burberry fragrance earlier this year, and sat side by side at the brand's Spring show. Moss also made a memorable turn as Cara (complete with suspect white powder) at Chiltern Firehouse on Halloween.
Photo: Dimitri Hyacinthe / Courtesy of JAG Models6/20Stalwart campaign provocateur Calvin Klein courted controversy back in November with its "Perfectly Fit" ads starring the likes of Jourdan Dunn and Lara Stone, as well as lesser-known Myla Dalbesio. The ensuing public disapproval wasn't the result of a titillating pose or Dalbesio's girth—much the opposite, in fact. Considering her modest size 10, the hinterlands between "straight"- and plus-sized girls, many felt it was problematic to present Dalbesio as somehow other. As The Times' Vanessa Friedman pointed out, CK had never explicitly billed Dalbesio as such, but the ensuing brouhaha surely still sold a few pairs of briefs.
Photo: Joe Schildhorn / BFAnyc.com7/20Bethann Hardison herself may have walked in 1973's storied Le Grand Divertissement de Versailles, but it's her work as a champion of runway diversity that earned her the CFDA Founder's Award back in May. The former model and agent has worked tirelessly to bring more black models to the fore, an unflinching force of change in an industry where activists are decidedly thin on the ground.
Photo: Tommy Ton8/20To hell with the lob. Its scruffy sibling, the shag, reigned supreme this season, and not just on runways like Tom Ford and Anna Sui. The year's breakout stars Mica Arganaraz and Antonina Petkovic both rocked the look on the streets, and Garren recently debuted Julia Stegner's similar chop on his Instagram. It's a little bit Keith, a little bit Patti, and a whole lot of cool.
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com9/20Can reproduction trend? As unlikely modes among the catwalk cadre go, 2014 saw more than a few high-profile pregnancies. Ashleigh Good kicked off the year visibly expectant and wearing bridal white at Chanel's Fall Couture show, but Lara Stone, Coco Rocha, Doutzen Kroes, Natalia Vodianova, and Julia Stegner all welcomed new additions, too.
Photo: Courtesy of Lanvin10/20Alber Elbaz recruited Edie Campbell and seven other members of the Campbell clan (plus beau Otis Ferry, son of Bryan) for Lanvin's Fall campaign. That included her younger sister Olympia, one of the year's breakout runway stars, and steed Dolly. God bless the British eccentrics.
Photo: Monica Feudi / Feudiguaineri.com11/20Let it never be said that Gemma Ward doesn't know how to make a (re)entrance. The dollish Aussie beauty made her catwalk comeback this September, opening Prada's Spring show after a six-year hiatus. Next up? Sending out the year with a bang, on the Replica Handbag Store Australia December issue.
Photo: Alessandro Garofalo / Indigitalimages.com12/20Models kickboxing, Spinning, or Physique 57-ing their way to sleek silos? Quelle snooze. The year's most modish workout goes to Charlotte Free, who bravely went where no catwalker's gone before: gamely roller-skating down the runway (and straight for the photo pit) at Moschino's Barbie World romp.
Photo: David M. Benett / Getty Images13/20Kendall and Gigi weren't the only starry spawn making waves this year. Taking genetics into account, it should come as little shock that the preternaturally adorable (dare we say it, fairly too adorable), aptly named Romeo Beckham would boast a modeling career that's well under way at the tender age of 12. After Beckham's star turn last year for Burberry, Christopher Bailey enlisted him again for another campaign and the brand's holiday short, From London With Love, where Beckham showed off his dance moves. Hailey Baldwin (daughter of Stephen) signed with Ford and won exclusives with Topshop Unique and Sonia Rykiel at the Spring shows. Kate's kid sister, Lottie Moss, also had a breakout year, scoring editorials for British Vogue, W, and Dazed, plus those CK Jeans images lensed by Michael Avedon—as in, grandson of Richard. He also shot Audrey Hepburn's granddaughter, Emma Ferrer, for Harper's Bazaar this past August.
Photos: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com14/20"All grown-up" has rarely looked so good as on the catwalk at Lanvin's Spring show. Alber Elbaz and co. recruited a posse of '90s runway regulars including Amber Valletta, Kirsten Owen, and Violetta Sanchez, Malgosia Bela, and Kim Peers, interspersed with new faces like Edie Campbell and Binx Walton. It made for a potent statement about the passage of time, and a fitting toast to the house's 125th anniversary. Are you experienced?
Photo: Courtesy of Alexander Wang15/20The waif may still have her place on the runways, but you'd never know it based on the banner year Anna Ewers has enjoyed. With her curves, blond locks, and inevitable Bardot comparisons (warranted, for once), the German model has become a fast favorite of…just about everyone. Ewers racked up 100 shows between Fall '14 and Spring '15 alone; gamely straddled a bike wearing cherry-red latex for Pirelli as Miss June; and covered Paris Vogue. But her biggest coup of the year? Without a doubt, the onanistic, undeniably titillating campaign images for Alexander Wang's first-ever denim offering.
16/20With a hefty runway résumé, Aymeline Valade need hardly diversify, but that's exactly what she did with her turn in Saint Laurent, Betrand Bonello's (unauthorized and ergo much sexier) YSL biopic. She plays Betty Catroux, the otherworldly and faintly androgynous blond who helped to popularize Yves' Le Smoking. Perhaps the only thing buzzier than Valade's performance? Her own turn in a tux on the red carpet at Cannes.
Photo: David M. Benett / Getty Images17/20If a romance with Bradley Cooper is of near-equal interest to one's professional endeavors, one must be doing something right. Such is the case with Suki Waterhouse, who—in addition to dating the aforementioned—has become a sensation in her own right. Since being plucked for a Burberry men's fragrance campaign back in 2013, Waterhouse has been a favorite of the brand. Christopher Bailey dressed her in a confectionary number for this year's Met Gala, and she could be spotted on the brand's Fall '14 and Spring '15 runways. And while Waterhouse's eye seems to be drifting ever more toward acting, her younger sister Immy has also just inked a contract with Next London.
Photo: Courtesy of Chanel18/20Since 2002, Gisele Bündchen has topped out as the highest-paid model in the world and, despite a recent 34th birthday, shows no signs of stopping; per Forbes, Bündchen raked in a sum in the neighborhood of $47 million in the past year. And while a hefty chunk of that can be attributed to her on-screen abilities—as seen in Baz Luhrmann's extravagant Chanel No. 5 short You're the One That I Want—let us not forget Gisele the chanteuse. "Heart of Glass," anyone?
Photo: Tommy Ton19/20There's a joyousness to not only the nickname, but to the girl herself (née Leona Anastasia Walton) that has all the industry pretty damn enamored of the Tennessean tomboy. Walton made her debut at Marc Jacobs Fall '13 before hitting the runways hard the following season. This year saw the street-style favorite open Chanel and Kenzo Spring '15 and score major campaigns, including Céline, Balmain, Chanel, and Coach. Suffice to say, we're on the Binx bandwagon in a big way.
Photo: David Sims / Courtesy of Marc by Marc Jacobs20/20The industry's latest PR coup? Instagram casting. Marc by Marc Jacobs has turned to social media to find stars for two campaigns now, using the hashtag #castmemarc. And for her capsule for DKNY, Cara Delevingne took to Instagram, too, sourcing a too-cool crew for the NYC-centric video.
