Who really is a supermodel?

As part of the Uganda Tourism Board’s efforts to raise awareness and popularity for Uganda’s tourist attractions, last weekend the American model, TV host and former NFL cheerleader Marlina Moreno arrived in the country on a programme that would see her climbing the Rwenzori Mountains as well as visiting the Murchison Falls National Park. Beautiful, commendable initiative by UTB.
However, this writer begs your pardon; among the many things he noticed in the sundry business that erupted with the American model’s visit, he also noticed that Ugandans had suddenly taken to referring to Marlina Morena as a ‘supermodel.’ This reference to Morena as a supermodel was all over our media, from where it found its way into the talk of the general masses. It is how this writer found himself wondering why (with his considerable interest in the world of models) he really had never heard about Morena the super model until her arrival in the country. It’s also how at the end of it, this writer found himself doing a quick investigation of what actually makes one a supermodel, as well as who the leading super models are today.
A small note here. The question of defining a supermodel itself is a complicated issue; however, there are a few characteristics that seem inevitable requirement if one is to really be called a supermodel.

Universal fame
The first inevitable characteristic of a supermodel would seem to be great fame. Nearly all definitions of a supermodel you will find –from sources as diverse as Wikipedia and Vogue Magazine– include prodigious fame among the things that separate a supermodel from the rest of her tribe of women whose profession is strutting on the catwalk and having their physical beauty captured on camera for use on magazine covers, on advertisements, in promotional videos, name it.
And former Forbes Magazine writer Kiri Blakeley, who produced the magazine’s initial annual list of the world’s highest earning models back in 2007, is in agreement here. In a piece she wrote four years ago in 2012, arguing that the power of supermodels was on the wane, Blakeley described supermodels as ‘the elite of the modeling world, women who are household names and recognisable faces across the world courtesy of their modelling careers.” For proof of this, read about how much the Victoria Secret fashion show is followed, or more accurately how much people are interested in the lives of the women who take part in the show. The most recent featured the likes of Adriana Lima and Jourdana Dunn.

Earning big
‘Highly-paid’ is the first adjective in the super-model description on public reference website Wikipedia. And expounding on it in the next paragraph, the anonymous writer of this Wikipedia entry goes on to state that ‘supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and famous clothing brands such as Victoria’s Fashion, Calvin Klein and Armani. They have multi-million dollar contracts, endorsements and campaigns with these designers and brands.’

And introducing the 2012 Forbes list of that year’s highest earning models, Forbes Magazine writer Brian Solomon also paid homage to the earning power that makes a supermodel. Brian Solomon wrote that over the preceding 12 months, the combined earnings of the top ten highest-paid models on his list totaled just under $100 million. Meaning the average earnings of the models on that group (who included the likes of Gisele Bundchen and Adriana Lima) was $10 million. In 2014, that figure rose to $142 million, according to Natalie Robehmed, who compiled The World’s Highest-Paid Models 2014 list for Forbes
And with their big earnings, supermodels are known to be wealthy women commanding net fortunes of several million US dollars.

Popular celebrity in High Circles
It appears a supermodel would also have to be someone who appears on the celebrity list and is actually a peer of such celebrities as movie stars, music icons, sports stars. At least if we are to go by Forbes writer Kiri Blakeley’s idea. Writing in that 2012 piece in which she argued that the power of supermodels was on the wane, Blakeley gave as reason for her stand the fact that the new breed of successful models were tending to be mostly women who were far from the corridors of mainstream celebrities –whom she could hardly put on a list of entertainers.
And the famous model management website modelmanagement.com agrees, writing that: “When a model starts to be known for their name or for a brand that their name represents, that’s when they have moved on to a new level of modelling. Supermodels tend to be more than just pretty faces fronting magazines and dominating the catwalks.

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