WHY WOMEN TOP THE CATWALK CASH CHARTS

It is a rare exception to the rule: the gender salary gap in the fashion industry means female models are paid more than their male counterparts for the same job.

None of the dozens of buffed and toned men parading at the latest Milan menswear shows since Friday can dream of earning anything like female catwalk stars, or of equivalent fame.

While the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell have long since passed beyond the confines to fashion to become A-list celebrities, their male equivalents, like the American Sean O’Pry or Britain’s David Gandy, remain largely unknown to the general public.

Gandy once observed: “Trust me to end up working in the only industry in the world where women get paid more than men, and treated loads better.

“In the hierarchy of a shoot, you have the photographer, the female model, the stylists, the assistants, then the male model. You are the lowest of the low.”

Frederic Godart, a sociologist who specialises in fashion’s place in society, explains: “Even if the markets for designer men’s and women’s clothes generate roughly the same sales, about $30 billion each, fashion remains an industry primarily aimed at women.”