Entertainment

See The Staggering Amount Kendall Jenner Earned To Be Named By Forbes As Highest Paid Model In The World (See List)

Published

6 years ago

December 14, 2018

Forbes has released a list of the top 10 highest paid models in the world with Kendall Jenner leading the way.

Kendall Jenner may not be the best-paid Kardashian-Jenner, but she’s earning more than any other model in the world. The 23-year-old banked $22.5 million in the 12 months prior to June 2018 to top this year’s ranking of the highest-paid models.

Her younger sister, Kylie Jenner, pocketed an estimated $166.5 million pretax in the same time frame thanks to Kylie Cosmetics, but the older Jenner sibling still scored a career-best from contracts with Estee Lauder, Adidas and Calvin Klein, among others.

Jenner edges supermodel-turned-coding-advocate Karlie Kloss, who earned $13 million—the best take-home of her decade-long modeling career. Kloss has parlayed a giant social media presence into a personal brand sought after by advertisers, and secured herself lucrative deals with the likes of Swarovski, Adidas and Estee Lauder, among others.

Thanks to social media, Kloss told Forbes, “I could be seen as well as heard.” She has since used that voice to found Kode with Klossy, an education nonprofit that aims to teach girls the basics of computer programming.

Together, the world’s 10 highest-paid models banked a cumulative $113 million between June 1, 2017, and June 1, 2018, up slightly from the 2017 list’s $109.5 million collective total.

All have used social media to raise their profiles. Online popularity has helped models such as Chrissy Teigen and Rosie Huntington-Whitely (tied at No. 3 with $13.5 million) branch out into other businesses. Teigen has a line of cookware, released a second cookbook and is the host of the television show Lip Sync Battle while Hungtington-Whitely has expanded from her popular products at British retailer Marks & Spencers into her own beauty website, Rose Inc.

“Your social media page is your magazine of your life, so how you represent yourself matters,” said Ivan Bart, president at IMG Models, whose agency represents the majority of models on the list. “If you’re going to cross over, you have to have a vision for it.”

Hollywood remains the vision for Cara Delevingne (No. 5; $10 million) despite the flop of her last major outing, Valerian, which grossed only $225.9 million on a $177.2 million budget. She will next be seen onscreen in the Amazon Prime Video series Carnival Row.

Doutzen Kroes (No. 10; $8 million) returned to the ranking after a year’s hiatus with lucrative L’Oréal and Piaget contracts, among others. Fellow returnees include Delevingne and Joan Smalls (No. 8; $8.5 million), who all had busier years that boosted their bank accounts.

Dropping off the list this year were Adriana Lima, Ashley Graham and Liu Wen, who all earned just below the $8 million cutoff.

Methodology

All earnings estimates are from June 1, 2017, through June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings are based on income from cosmetics, fragrance and other contracts. Estimates are sourced from interviews with numerous managers, agents, brand executives and industry experts.

The World’s Highest-Paid Models 2018: