The highest-paid models in 2025 no longer derive the majority of their income from runway shows. Forbes now ranks several of them in lists of businesswomen rather than in the models category, signaling a shift towards entrepreneurship. This ranking is based on estimated earnings, owned brands, and the business diversification of each profile.
1. Kylie Jenner: the blurred line between model and mogul
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Kylie Jenner has built a cosmetics empire that far exceeds traditional modeling. Her makeup brand, launched with a simple lip kit, generates revenues that regularly place her at the top of Forbes rankings. Kylie is also featured in major fashion campaigns, but the majority of her income comes from her own brands.
Her presence on social media, with several hundred million followers, allows her to convert each post into a business operation. Traditional modeling agencies struggle to compete with this business model where the model becomes her own advertiser.
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2. Kendall Jenner: the Kardashian who chose the runways
Kendall Jenner distinguishes herself from her sister Kylie by having a stronger foothold in fashion. Contracts with luxury houses, magazine covers, haute couture shows: her profile remains that of a classic model. The difference is that she combines these fees with business partnerships, particularly in the spirits sector.
To better understand the financial trajectories of these profiles, the fortune of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in 2025 illustrates how a modeling career extends into entrepreneurship.
3. Gisele Bündchen: decades of accumulated income
Gisele Bündchen remains a reference when talking about wealth in modeling. For years, she dominated the Forbes list of highest-paid models. Her contracts with fashion, cosmetics, and jewelry brands laid the foundation for a colossal fortune.
Her real estate investments and eco-friendly product lines have diversified her income sources for over a decade. She is far from the model who solely lives off her runway shows.
4. Kim Kardashian: from media business to clothing
Kim Kardashian has built a considerable fortune through her underwear and shapewear brand. Forbes ranks her among the richest businesswomen, not just among models. Her media income, fashion contracts, and clothing line form a complete financial ecosystem.
The Kardashian model illustrates this underlying trend: modeling becomes a springboard to high-margin businesses, not an end in itself.
5. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: the most profitable career change
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has transformed her fame as a model into a beauty and fashion brand. Her cosmetic line and collaborations with fashion retailers generate stable income, far beyond runway fees.
Her journey shows that models who invest early in their own brand secure long-term income. Campaign contracts come as a supplement, not a pillar.
6. Cara Delevingne: model, actress, and investor
Cara Delevingne has diversified her income between film, fashion, and investments. Her transition from modeling to film has opened complementary income sources. Agencies like IMG Models support this type of multi-faceted profile, and some recent contracts include equity stakes rather than just a fee.
Equity compensation changes the game for top models: instead of a one-time fee, they become shareholders of the brands they represent.
7. Adriana Lima: longevity as a financial asset
Adriana Lima has built her fortune over more than two decades of continuous collaborations with major brands. Her loyalty to certain lingerie brands has guaranteed her recurring income for years.
Today, her income also comes from contracts with sports and wellness brands. This longevity in the fashion industry remains a rare case and a model of career management.
8. Hailey Bieber: when personal branding surpasses modeling
Hailey Bieber launched her own skincare brand, which quickly found its audience. The revenue from this venture exceeds her modeling fees. This pattern confirms the trend observed among the highest-paid models in 2025: the own product earns more than the campaign contract.
Her millions of social media followers provide her with a direct distribution channel, without reliance on traditional media.
9. Naomi Campbell: the fortune of an always-active icon
Naomi Campbell continues to sign campaign contracts at an age when most models have retired. Her fortune accumulated over several decades includes real estate investments, stakes in brands, and fees from haute couture shows.
Her presence remains a commercial asset for major fashion houses, and she does not need to launch her own brand to maintain her income at a very high level.
10. Virtual avatars and generative AI: the next competition for models
The rise of generative artificial intelligence raises a concrete question: can virtual avatars capable of posing, walking the runway, and wearing digital clothing replace human models for certain contracts? Several brands are already testing virtual models for social media campaigns.
- The production costs of an avatar are fixed, without travel logistics or recurring fees
- Human models retain an advantage in perceived authenticity by consumers
- Hybrid contracts (real model paired with a digital avatar) are beginning to appear in agency proposals
Feedback varies on this point, but models who diversify their income in business will be better protected against this algorithmic competition. The 2025 ranking confirms this: those at the top are no longer just models, but entrepreneurs for whom modeling is only one component of their overall fortune.