World’s top model isn’t Kate, Lara or Cara ... it’s Joan
Smalls
Leggy Latina is the most in demand
Body of work ... Joan Smalls in Victoria's Secret garb
FAMOUS
Published: 30th March 2013
Puerto Rican Joan Smalls is the No1 model in the WORLD, according to the rankings of industry standard-setters Models.com.
YOU might not know her name but you’ll definitely recognise the body.
The leggy Latino, 25, is a Victoria’s Secret Angel and has fronted campaigns for everyone from Stella McCartney to Versace since hitting the catwalks four years ago.
Smalls featured in at least 13 runway shows during the last fashion week and is in high demand with the world’s leading designers, photographers and magazine editors.
On fire ... Joan Smalls struts her stuff in a New York fashion show
FAMOUS
But while the appeal of models such as bushy-browed Cara Delevingne and gap-toothed Lara Stone lie in their unique, iconic looks, Joan’s success is in her adaptable catwalk beauty.
Her long legs, special pout and natural looks have made for an already successful modelling career that, thanks to this ranking, looks set to skyrocket.
This week the New Icons range for H&M — which Joan fronts alongside Daphne Groeneveld, Lindsey Wixson and Liu Wen — went on sale.
It’s not just fashion lines Joan is inspiring. In 2011 she broke beauty industry standards to become the first ever Latina face of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder.
And while Brits Cara and Kate Moss might fill column inches with their party lifestyles and celeb pals, Joan keeps a low profile.
Face of beauty ... Joan Smalls is first Latina to front Estee Lauder
There’s no rock star boyfriend or drug and sex scandals — though she is dating ex-model Bernard Smith.
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.
Born in Hatillo, Puerto Rico, as Joan Smalls Rodriguez, the model claims African, Spanish, Taíno Indian and Irish heritage.
The youngest of three sisters, she grew up on a fruit farm surrounded by farmyard pets, but her interests lay elsewhere.
She recalls: “As a child I would pretend I was a beauty pageant contestant with my sisters but I never thought I would be a model.”
By age 13 she was entering local modelling competitions but lost every one she entered.
Smalls fortune ... Joan models for H&M
She said later: “I was told I was too tall, too thin and too dark.”
After watching an episode of TV series E! True Hollywood Story, the teenage Joan decided to try her luck as a model in New York.
She convinced her traditionalist father to fund her trip to the US for castings with one condition — that she get a college education.
Joan did this, finishing a psychology degree in two years instead of four, and at 19 moved to the Big Apple permanently.
For three years she did everything from company catalogue work to appearing in Ricky Martin’s music video for It’s Alright in 2008.
Stella-r ... Joan models for McCartney
The same year she walked for designers Sass & Bide and Diane Von Furstenberg at the spring/summer shows in New York.
But it was after leaving Elite and signing with IMG, the agency that also represents supermodels Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, that a determined Joan got her breakthrough.
Designer Riccardo Tisci picked her to walk exclusively for the Givenchy spring 2010 couture show. She says: “He saw my potential and it changed people’s perspective.”
Her career has soared since, working with top fashion photographers Patrick Demarchelier, Terry Richardson and Mario Testino. Italian Vogue’s March 2012 issue had “Haute Mess” Joan on the cover — the first black model to front the magazine in four years.
Posing a threat ... Cara Delevingne
Rex
In January this year she appeared on Vogue Brazil’s “Black Issue” in all black, wearing a bit of oxblood on her lips and nail tips.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
Earlier this year she came under fire for a fashion shoot in US Vogue staged by Annie Leibovitz.
Joan and fellow models Chanel Iman, Karlie Kloss and Arizona Muse posed alongside members of the National Guards’ and other New York first response teams.
The spread was quickly slammed for putting a glamorous spin on natural disaster Hurricane Sandy. But the scandal did little to dent her industry credibility.
She has rung in the New Year with covers of Vogue Turkey, Japan and Russia.
Rival ... Lara Stone
Despite her success she still hasn’t featured on Anna Wintour’s US Vogue and dreams of fronting a campaign for Burberry, whose current faces include Cara, Edie Campbell and Romeo Beckham.
Joan says: “I’d love to be an honorary Brit so I could front a Burberry campaign.
“But I know Christopher Bailey [Burberry's chief creative officer] only ever picks British models to do campaigns. I want to be adopted!”
In the meantime she will have to settle for featuring in the lyrics on the song Christian Dior Denim Flow, by rapper Kanye West, who names her as his favourite model.
Refreshingly, Joan still has her feet firmly on the ground, too. She is involved in the charity Project Sunshine, which provides free educational, recreational and social programmes to medically-challenged children and families.
Moss watch out ... Kate
She has also remained a doting daughter, buying a car for her dad from her first-earned dollars and a new kitchen for her mum.
On the Models.com top ranking Joan says: “It feels amazing being number one.
“I’m extremely flattered, honoured and just blessed.
“It just cements that all my hard work paid off — not having a life, travelling on your birthday, not having holidays, all that actually pays off.”
And if her hectic catwalk and shoot schedule wasn’t enough, Joan also co-hosts the newly revived MTV show House Of Style with fellow supermodel Karlie Kloss.
With a net worth now in the millions, one thing is for sure — Smalls has hit the big-time.
myView
By SASKIA QUIRKE, Fashion Editor
THIS Puerto Rican beauty is one of the hardest-working models in fashion.
While our own Cara is in high demand here, the top 50 rankings on Models.com are based on the number of bookings by photographers, brands and magazines across the globe in a year.
Smalls’ success is not just down to her work ethic.
Her classic beauty and willowy frame give her global appeal over those editorial models with distinctive looks.
Joan Smalls is in vogue – and everything else.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/4866472/joan-smalls-no1-model.html#ixzz2P4e7HEck
