Gigi Hadid

No shortlist would be complete without the undeniable super-power that is Gigi Hadid. In 2016, she has walked for Versace, Chanel, Elie Saab, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Miu Miu, Balmain, Diane von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Fenty x Puma, Isabel Marant, and Giambattista Valli. Her trajectory through the industry has been stratospheric this year, securing her first American Vogue cover, collaborating with Tommy Hilfiger to create her own collection for the house, designing a boot after her own name with the legendary Stuart Weitzman, walking for the second year in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show and crowning her year by, well, being crowned model of the year by the British Fashion Council.

Ashley Graham 

2016 marked the first year for Sports Illustrated to feature a plus-sized model on the cover of their Swimsuit Issue with Ashley Graham as its subject. Few plus-size models have ever attained the level of attention Graham commanded throughout the year. She walked in H&M’s AW16 Studio Show in Paris, alongside supermodels including Jourdan Dunn and Freja Beha Erichsen. It has been announced that she will replace Tyra Banks as the anchor judge of the reincarnation of America’s Next Top Model. In November, it was announced that she would be British Vogue’s cover girl for their January 2017 issue, making her the first plus-sized model to grace the front page of the British fashion bible.

Lineisy Montero Feliz

At the age of 20, Montero was the undisputed catwalk queen of 2016. Her debut for Prada caused a sensation when she appeared with short Afro hair in a line of 41 straight-haired ponytails worn by her fellow catwalk models. Since that moment, she has walked the runway for Loewe, Céline, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs, has featured in campaigns for Prada, Chanel and Givenchy, as well as gracing the pages of British Vogue. Montero is one of a very small number of celebrities of African origin who wear their hair boyishly short and natural.

The dynastic support networks behind the new generation of supermodels

Strangely, Afro hair – which has traditionally been outlawed in fashion – with designers insisting that black models wear their hair pressed as straight as the white models, actually became the catalyst for the launch of her career. It is a well-documented fact that for 15 years, Prada did not employ black runway models, and so, when she became the personal muse of Miuccia herself, the industry immediately took notice of Montero in all her gamine glory.

Up and coming: Frederikke Sofie Falbe

With her sun-kissed, Pre-Raphaelite curls, Danish-born Frederikke Sofie Falbe is like a modern-day Rapunzel. Since taking the fashion world by storm when she opened Céline’s AW15 show, as well as starring in the accompanying campaign, Frederikke has gone from strength to strength, featuring on the covers and in the pages of many major fashion magazines this year – watch this space