HOT: Top 20 models in the world

Industry authority Models.com has recently come out with a list of the top female models in the business. We bring you the top 20 list.

They've been the faces of some of the best known brands in the world. From Karlie Closs to Candice Swanepoel and Joan Smalls, we bring you the top 20 heavenly bodies to kick off the summer!

20. Marie Piovesan

First up we have the French model Marie Piovesan who Models.com describes as being a 'hallmark of fashion iconography' and Marie P has stepped into the spotlight fitting that bill perfectly. Having most recently walked for the Hermes Fall-Winter and the Dior Spring-Summer show most recently, Piovesan loves to paint and is by her own confession trying to write a book.

Her favourite authors? Edgar Allen Poe, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Pouchkine, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Nabokov and William Shakespeare after whose protagonist she named her dog Othello!

19. Julia Nobis

The leggy Australian is perhaps best known for her Burberry campaigns. But Julia Nobis has since also modelled for Balenciaga and Proenza among others.

After having been discovered in the streets of Rose Bay, Sydney, wearing her school uniform, Nobis has since been shot for at least three international editions of Vogue and walked for numerous brands including Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Maison Martin Margiela, Valentino and Miu Miu in fashion weeks across the world.

Be warned if you want to mess with her because the sexy model counts martial arts as one of her hobbies.

18. Bette Franke

Discovered at 14 while she was shopping with her mother in Amsterdam, Bette Franke made her debut in the 2006 season in Milan. Eventually, she would go on to model for brads such as Hermes, Emanuel Ungaro and Dries van Noten  among others as well as walk for Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Chanel and Prada among other high-profile brands. 

Explaining why the Models.com chose her among the top models in the business, the good folks there describer Bette Frank as 'a compelling girl with very well managed books and those return clients that ensure career longevity' adding that 'Bette's undeniable charms will never go out of style'.

17. Cara Delevingne

The face of Burberry's Beauty campaign, Cara Delevingne is described by British Vogue described as the 'star face' of the autumn/winter 2012-2013 show season. Delevingne had walked for brands including Moschino, Oscar de la Renta, Jason Wu, Chanel, Fendi, Stella McCartney, Dolce & Gabbana and of course Burberry.

The British model is also a Victoria's Secret model and has appeared in several lists including Evening Standard's list of London's 1,000 Most Influential people of 2011 and has also won Model Of The Year 2012 at the British Fashion Awards.

More recently, Cara Delevingne has played a small part in the latest film adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. She plays Princess Sorokina, the marriage interest of Count Vronsky.

16. Candice Swanepoel

Spotted by a model scout in a Durban flea market at 15, Candice Swanepoel is today one of the best-known names in the business today. Apart from being a Victoria's Secret Angel, Swanepoel has since walked the runway for numerous designers including Dolce and Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, Fendi, Chanel, Stella McCartney and Jean Paul Gaultier among others. 

The sexy lingerie model has also appeared on several 'Sexiest' lists including FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll and Maxim's Hot 100 List.

Candice Swanepoel has also appeared in the Forbes' top earning models list having earned an estimated $3 million between 2010 and 2011.

15. Lindsey Wixson

No one in her school who bullied her for the gap between her front teeth would have ever dreamt that Lindsey Wixson would go on to become one of America's top supermodels.

Hailing from a humble background, Wixson's parents (her father instals satellite dishes and her mother is a school bus driver) took a loan to driver her to Los Angeles so she could try her luck at modelling.

After being rejected by several modelling agencies including the famous IMG, Wixson found herself being booked for the Italian Vogue after photographer Steven Meisel discovered one of her videos on Models.com. She made her runaway debut at the New York Fashion Week in the Sprint of 2010. Since then she has opened the spring 2010 Prada show and closed for Miu Miu in Paris making her one of the most successful models of the season.

W then ran a full-page close-up of her lips and the gap in her teeth that had once made her conscious about her looks. LIFE magazine has also done a series of photographs featuring Wixson when she worked at New York Fashion Week chronicling the life of a 15-year-old teen model.

14. Daphne Groeneveld

Best known for appearing on the cover of Vogue Paris alongside Tom Ford, Daphne Groeneveld was discovered quite by chance when she was shopping with her mother.

Even as she made her debut on the runway in the Fall-Winter season of 201, her career took off only a year later.

Groeneveld has also been awarded as Best Dutch Model at the Marie Claire Netherlands Fashion Awards in 2011 and has appeared on the cover of numerous Vogue editions and walked for several high profile labels including Dior, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, John Galliano, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Versace and Donna Karan among others.

She shares the spot with the Chinese model Fei Fei Sun.

13. Sui He

All of 23, Sui He is only the second Asian model after Liu Wen to walk the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Having entered modelling at the age of 17 when she entered and won a modelling contest in 2006, He signed a contract with China Bentley Culture Development Co in Beijing.

Until 2010, He modelled locally since she was busy completing school and caught everyone's attention in the Fall/Winter 2011 season, where she most opened for Ralph Lauren and opened and closed Vivienne Tam in New York.

Her success in that season made her one of New York magazine's Top 10 Faces of Fall 2011 as well as one of Style.com's top ten newcomers.

Said to be polite and gracious, Sui He is also one of the most promising supermodels in the business today.

She shares the spot with the French model Aymeline Valade.

12. Abbey Lee Kershaw

Hailed by V magazine's as 'the biggest fashion export from Down Under since Elle Macpherson' Australian Abbey Lee Kershaw is made her fashion week debut in 2008 at New York where she walked for a whopping 29 shows. At Milan, Gucci booked her as an exclusive. 

Kershaw then managed to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after falling in her high heels at the Rodarte show in New York and fainting at the Alexander McQueen show from wearing a tight leather corset.

Even so, the assignments kept pouring in including an explicit shoot for the French magazine Purple Fashion that was shot photographer Terry Richardson that caused considerable outrage after Richardson was accused of cajoling the girls for his sexual satisfaction. 

Richardson also photographed her among other models in the 2010 Pirelli Calendar.

11. Freja Beha Erichsen

Yet another model who was discovered on the streets by a modelling agent is the Dutch.

Freja Beha Erichsen, who made her debut in Paris and Milan shows of Prada Louis Vuitton and Miu Miu.

Since then she has walked for several high profile brands including Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Burberry and Prada among others and appeared in advertising campaigns for brands such as Hugo Boss, CK Hermes, Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld.

Lagerfeld also shot her in the 2011 edition of the Pirelli Calendar and has appeared on the covers of various editions of Vogue.

10. Kati Nescher

Possibly the oldest model in this list at 29, Kati Nescher's story is stuff that movies are made of. The supermodel started her career only two years ago when she was 27 -- an age when many modelling careers have peaked out -- after having got married, divorced and delivered and raised her baby boy in Germany.

Nescher however hails from the former USSR where she studied piano and ballet as she completed school. Soon after Putin came into power, Nescher enrolled in a language programme in Munich where she spent the next ten years of her life.

At 27, divorced and a mother of a son, she decided to make something of her life. Having encouraged by her makeup-artist friend, Nescher applied to a small modelling agency in Cologne.

Today, she is one of the busiest models in New York having walked the runway for various brands and appeared in Vogue editorials as well as advertising campaigns for brands like Prada and Chanel among others.

Her son Theo, now three, continues to stay in Munich who she visits every month.

9. Suvi Koponen

The Finnish supermodel who won the televised Mallikoulu or Model School contest ranks number nine in the list of top models in the world according to Models.com.

Suvi Koponen made her runway debut in the Fall-Winter season of 2006 but it was only in the following year that she managed to get all the attention she deserved. That year she walked for Prada and Miu Miu appearing in a number of editorials for French, British, Italian and American Vogue.

Many other editorials followed as did magazine covers and brand endorsements.

2007 also saw her being listed as one of the 'top ten models to watch this fashion week' by New York magazine and a year later she was the subject of an MTV3 documentary.

Koponen has since walked the runway and featured in ad campaigns of various designer and high street fashion brands.

8. Constance Jablonski

Giving her dreams of playing tennis professionally (she was a competitive player for nine years), Constance Jablonski turned to modelling after she participated in the French Elite Model Look Contest of 2006.

It would be another two years before she would make her fashion week debut in New York Milan and Paris but she has since then never turned to look back having walked for Donna Karan, Gucci, Burberry, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen among others.

Constance Jablonski has also walked the runway for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and appeared advertising campaigns for Hermes, Nine West, Barneys, Topshop, H&M, GAP and Benetton among others.

7. Daria Strokous

Having made her debut as an exclusive model for the Prada show in Milan, Daria Strokous has since appeared on the covers of various editions of Vogue as well as magazines such as V, W and Numero among others.

Over the years, she has also made a foray into acting having appeared in an independent short film short independent film titled ParAmor and had a small role in the 2011 film Contagion starring Kate Winslet and Matt Damon among many others.

6. Karmen Pedaru

The Estonian model was discovered when she was 15 at drama theatre in Tallinn following which she appeared in an editorial for Teen Vogue.

Before making her debut for Christopher Kane's Spring 2007 collection, Karmen Pedaru used to be a football player having guarded the goal for the national team for a year before she quit to become a model.

In the fall of 2008, Pedaru walked the runway 43 times at the New York Fashion Week appearing for prominent brands including Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Givenchy and Dries Van Noten.

Her Victoria's Secret debut came in 2011, the same year when she replaced fellow Estonian model Carmen Kass as the new face of Michael Kors.

She married Riccardo Ruini on December 14 last year.

5. Liu Wen

Born into a working class family in China, Liu Wen started her modelling career when she participated in a New Silk Road World Model Contest. But real success came around the time she bagged a cover of the Chinese FHM eventually shooting for Chinese editions of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

Eventually she went on to become the first model of Chinese descent to walk for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

4. Saskia de Brauw

At a time when most models begin their careers, Saskia de Brauw quit the business at 16 to study art in Amsterdam, her hometown. When she returned to modelling at age 29, she was featured on two Vogue covers in the same month. 

De Brauw has since then been featured in numerous ad campaigns even as she pursues her career as an artist across media.

3. Arizona Muse

Mother of one, Arizona Muse is the face of Next for two successive years in 2011 and 2012. Appearing in editorials of various editions of Vogue, W, V and Numero among other magazines, Muse has had a meteoric rise in the business.

But perhaps the best compliment to Muse comes from the legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour who wrote in the February 2011 issue: "When I look at Arizona, I see shadows of Linda Evangelista and Natalia Vodianova, but most of all I see her, a gorgeous, smart, grown-up. And how could anyone resist someone with that name?"

2. Karlie Kloss

The stunning American model has been called the new 'Body' by the fashion world, a title that has been unanimously reserved for veteran model Elle Macpherson.

Karlie Kloss had famously stripped for Italian Vogue standing in nothing but stiletto heels and a Sombrero hat in 2011 showing off her flawlessly sculpted body.

Supermodel Tyra Banks has stated that she counts Kloss as one of her favourite models because of her 'unique, atypical beauty'. Besides appearing in various editorials and on covers of magazines, Kloss has also appeared in advertisement campaigns of Juicy Couture, Stefanel, Elie Saab, and Jean Paul Gaultier.

More recently, Kloss has worked with Victoria's Secret 2013 swimwear video.

1. Joan Smalls

At number one of the world's top models list is the Puerto Rican model Joan Smalls. The sexy 25-year-old is a Victoria's Secret Angel and has been part of ad campaigns of practically every major design house including Versace since she made her runway debut about for years ago.

Smalls is also the first Latina to be the face of the cosmetics giant Estee Lauder and maintains a fairly low profile. As The Sun writes: "There's no rock star boyfriend or drug and sex scandals... Instead Joan, who signed with Elite Model Management in New York in 2007, was drawn to the industry for the financial security, hoping a model's salary could mean a better life for her and her family."

Most interestingly, the Latina who knew she wanted to be a model from the time she was very young, entered numerous local pageants... and lost every single one of them. Funny isn't it how things turn out?!