Beyond the catwalk is…what? Another stage?
Not for these five world-famous models. Each is a veritable Renaissance woman, blessed with multitudinous talents and endless curiosity. Let’s take a closer look at why there’s far more than meets the eye to these five glamorous women.
1. Giselle Bundchen
Brazilian-born Giselle Bundchen is a true power player. In 2012, she topped Forbes’ list of the world’s top-earning models; two years later, she earned number 89 on Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful women. A noted philanthropist, Bundchen is an avid supporter of top charities (among them, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders) and a passionate environmentalist.
2. Elena Matei
European model Elena Matei’s most visible achievements might be her arresting cover shoots for Elle and Marie Claire, among others, but she’s also a talented vocalist who’s performed for legends like Barbara Streisand and David Foster. Matei even has a hidden talent she keeps (mostly) under wraps — a passion for painting. Oh, and she has nearly 200,000 Instagram followers.
3. Cara Delevigne
Cara Delevigne hit the big time early, at the tender age of 10. In the subsequent years, she’d become one of the U.K.’s most prolific models — and one of its most promising on-screen talents to boot, with supporting roles in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina and the fantasy epic Pan, among others. Delevigne is also an accomplished writer (making her debut in 2017 with a provocative novel), designer (for DKNY and Mulberry), and musician (cutting various albums and accompaniments since 2011).
4. Lily Cole
Lily Cole made her modeling debut as a teenager in the mid-2000s and quickly took the scene by storm. But she wasn’t content to cruise by on her stunning looks and obvious stage presence. By the early 2010s, she’d amassed a nice coterie of film credits, to be followed shortly by the launch of an ambitious website built around the then-nascent sharing economy. These days, Cole is a noted philanthropist who champions environmental causes.
5. Iman
In a less just world, Iman’s sole claim to fame would be her marriage to the late glam rock superstar David Bowie. Today, that relationship — by all accounts a marriage of equals — barely warrants a footnote on the Somalia-born fashion model’s eclectic and wildly successful career.
Iman, whose mouthful of a given name (Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid) long ago gave way to her two-syllable moniker, is a prolific entrepreneur, talented actress, and generous philanthropist. Her achievements are too legion to name here, and what may be her crowning achievement is difficult to measure — Iman inspired a generation of East African girls to imagine better, fuller lives for themselves.
More Than Meets the Eye
These five models are doing truly amazing things with their time, talents, and name recognition. But it’s important for their fans to remember that they’re not the only multifaceted models in the business today. For a variety of structural and incidental reasons that have been discussed elsewhere at length, most models are unfairly typecast. That’s not just unfair — it’s downright sexist. We’d all do well to remember that humans contain multitudes, no matter what they do for a living.