Gisele & Heidi | Victoria's Secret Models Dominate Forbes List

Former VS Angels Heidi Klum (l) & Gisele Bundchen (r)

X-posted SN Living

Luxury brands can get very snooty about the Victoria’s Secret models not being good enough for their runways, but they can’t deny the reality that a Victoria’s Secret contract spells financial success, unless a girl is the world’s worst money manager.

Forbes shares their estimate of the 10 top earning models with this lineup, saying that the 10 top-earning models made a combined $112 million in the 12 months ending in May, a 30% increase over last year.

Now I am officially clueless about the meaning of the Models.com Top 50 rankings, given the fact that the top-three earning models aren’t even listed and two of the three are doing major fashion editorials.

Heidi Klum, the German supermodel is host and executive producer of ‘Project Runway’ has also partnered with New Balance and Amazon.com to launch a clothing line, writes Forbes. She also has a new content-producing deal with AOL.

Here’s the Forbes estimated list of the top-earning models. With Victoria’s Secret models Doutzen Kroes and Miranda Kerr back from maternity leave, the list will likely change for 2012.

We include links to the models editorials throughout all our website channels and a sexy one for good measure.

Gisele Bündchen $45 Million

ALL Gisele Bundchen

Gisele Bundchen | Jacques Dequeker | Vogue Brazil October 2010

Heidi Klum $20 Million

ALL Heidi Klum

Heidi Klum by Rankin | DT Spain | Feb 2010

Kate Moss $13.5 Million

ALL Kate Moss

Kate Moss | Mario Sorrenti | Poolside in Vogue Paris

Adriana Lima $8 Million

ALL Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima | Victoria’s Secret Angel in Venice Perhaps?

Alessandra Ambrosio $5 Million

ALL Alessandra Ambrosio

Alessandra Ambrosio’s Muscle Lust | David Burton | French Elle Mar 2010

Daria Werbowy $4.5 Million

ALL Daria Werbowy

Daria Werbowy | Mikael Jansson | Vogue Paris Calendar 2011

Lara Stone $4.5 Million

ALL Lara Stone

Lara Stone | Paolo Roversi | Style Noir | Vogue Italy November 2009

Carolyn Murphy $4.3 million

ALL Carolyn Murphy

Carolyn Murphy | Daniele & Iango | ‘The Return of Splendor | Vogue Nippon March 2011

Natalia Vodianova $4 million

ALL Natalia Vodianova

Natalia Vodianova | Mario Sorrenti | W Magazine Holiday 2004

Candice Swanepoel $3 million

ALL Candice Swanepoel

Candice Sawnepoel | Russell James | V2 | NSFW

While elite models are prospering, salaries are lower for newcomers comments Ed Razek, chief marketing officer for Limited Brands. “People took a very realistic look at what they were paying models and what made sense… . There was a substantial adjustment in rates—maybe not for Gisele, but for the daily working model—and most people found the world didn’t collapse.”