10 Models Who Are Redefining the Fashion World

Image via Complex Original

At first, Jillian Mercado, the executive editorial director at We The Urban, entered Diesel’s casting call for young, culturally-representative models as a joke. The wheelchair-bound beauty with muscular dystrophy was certain that her non-traditional look would be cast off. However, the brand’s artistic director, Nicola Formichetti, shattered all expectations and hired her as a face of the Spring 2014 ‘We Are Connected’ campaign.

Since then, Mercado has been tapped by Nordstrom for its spring and summer fashion catalogues, and is shaking up the Barbie-like standards of beauty that are prevalent today. 

How does a relatively unknown male model amass 2.2 million followers on Instagram? Calvin Klein’s 28-year-old golden boy knows the secret: Craft your own personal brand. “I’ve always treated my Instagram like a TV show,” Bateman told Daily Front Row. “I make sure I post everyday so people get an inside view on my life, whether I’m working, hanging at home with my dog, or traveling, I’d always try to post something so that people knew what’s going on in my life.” 

When he’s not modeling, he tries to keep his life (and, thus, his social media presence) interesting by practicing martial arts and taking small roles in cult films like Hobo With a Shotgun.

More than a pretty face, more than a personality, Cara Delevingne is a phenomenon. Sure, the 22-year-old supermodel has walked for everyone from Yves St. Laurent to Chanel, and she probably has Karl Lagerfeld’s number on speed dial, but Delevingne is best known for being herself. Her goofy, unfiltered personality—marked by a penchant for making funny faces, wearing onesies, and partying with everyone from Kate Hudson to Rihanna to Kendall Jenner—has transcended the fashion world, not only gaining her the interest of Hollywood, but also the music industry.

This summer, she’s starring in the highly anticipated film adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns, and is rumored to be getting in the recording studio with Beyoncé. Looking to Cara for inspiration, to redefine the fashion world, you have to rise above it.

Jade Willoughby isn’t the blue-eyed, blonde-haired Scandinavian gazelle you typically see on the runway. However, nor is she African-American, Hispanic, or Asian. The indigenous, Canadian beauty is a First Nation model—one that’s admittedly been difficult for clients to accept. 

"I don't fall under the category of being booked as a black model or any other ethnic models, so it's sort of—I'm in a category all my own and that can be tough at times,” Jade told ICTMN. “They do use the term 'ethnically ambiguous' because I am mixed.” The Wilhelmina model, who walked her first New York Fashion week last spring, proves that categories are unnecessary, and she encourages the industry to look at each person as an individual.

You’ve seen him before. Known as the first albino male model, Ross was the unforgettable face in Lana Del Rey’s short film “Tropico,” Beyonce’s video “Pretty Hurts,” and Katy Perry’s “E.T.” Just one glance at the former Alvin Ailey professional dancer and it’s impossible not to be enchanted by his peculiar features, which need no explanation.

In fact, his look, which used to make him the subject of bullying as a kid, is so intriguing that he’s one of the most recognizable male models working today, having been featured in everything from GQ to Vogue. Essentially, Ross grew up turning what was once perceived as his greatest weakness into his biggest strength.

Either she caught your eye when Drake instagrammed a pic of her at NYFW or you saw her as a contestant on last season’s America’s Next Top Model. That is to say, she’s got to be on your radar already. (If not, where have you been?) Alternatively known as Winnie Harlow, the Toronto-raised model is the first person with vitiligo—a skin condition that causes discoloration—to be the face of a major brand. In her case, that’s Desigual.

When she’s not modeling, Brown-Young gives motivational speeches, including a recent TED Talk, encouraging young women like her to pursue their dreams regardless of societal pressures. Harlow told Today, “You can’t let someone else lower your self-esteem because that’s what it is—self-esteem, you need to first love yourself before you have anybody else love you.”

Don’t try to put Erika Linder in a box. The androgynous Swede, who recently played the male and female roles in a Crocker by JC Jeans campaign, said it herself on Twitter: “I have too much imagination to be just one gender.” Since then, the out model, who’s already established herself as a lesbian icon, has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar China, has starred in a steamy shoot as one of the guys in Tom Ford’s Lips & Boys campaign, and most recently walked Paris Fashion Week for Louis Vuitton. Linder is proof that the only limitations you have are the ones you place on yourself, and the fashion world is certainly taking notice of that.

Since 2011, Pejic has had a successful run in the modeling industry, being billed as an androgynous male model and having walked both the men’s and women’s fashion shows for Jean Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs. Last year, Andreja officially came out as a transgender woman after undergoing sex reassignment surgery and raised money through Kickstarter to fund a documentary on her journey, titled Andrej(A). Pejic, who’s been touted as a pioneer for transgender high-fashion models, said in a statement to GLAAD, "To all trans youth out there, I would like to say respect yourself and be proud of who you are.”

The first “in-between” (bigger than 0-2, but smaller than 12-14) model for Calvin Klein lingerie, Dalbesio is the modeling industry’s girl next door. The stunning beauty, at size 10, is the biggest girl the brand has ever booked, and she’s embracing every second of working her natural curves.

As Dalbesio admits, it’s the public who went nuts about her being touted as a “plus-size” model, which the brand never actually announced. “A lot of brands go for shock value,” Dalbesio told Yahoo!. “They say, ‘We booked a girl who is so noticeably not a size 0 and aren’t we great?’ What Calvin did was radical. They didn’t book someone who was so large and didn’t make a huge announcement. They just booked a normal girl.” Together, Dalbesio and Calvin Klein are not only changing the way we perceive models, but also the way we talk about them.

Alex Minsky’s got the chiseled jaw, the six-pack abs, and the everything-else of a male model, except one thing: He’s missing his right leg. A former Marine who was severely injured during an explosion in Afghanistan, Minsky fell into alcoholism and a deep depression before picking himself back up by going to rehab and using exercise as a form of therapy. It was there, at the gym, that Minsky was discovered by a photographer who encouraged him to model. Since then, he’s been featured in GQ, in a campaign for the Hunger Games film franchise, and as a brand ambassador for LiveFit.