Gigi and Bella compete for top fashion title
It’s been a meteoric rise for the social media savvy stars who followed their mother on to the catwalk
ONE is blonde, the other brunette. While one excelled at volleyball, the other wanted to be a photographer.
But whatever their differences, they have at least two things in common.
They are both going head to head at the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow for the title of world’s greatest model. Oh, and they happen to be sisters. Say hello to Gigi and Bella Hadid, who have both been shortlisted in the International Model category of the British Fashion Awards.
The award is for the female or male model who has “contributed most to the international fashion scene in the past year and has demonstrated influence beyond the catwalk”.
Should either 21-year-old Gigi or Bella, 20, pick up the title at the end of the glittering gala evening, it will represent the high point in parallel careers that have seen them come to dominate the catwalks and covers of the world’s glossiest magazines.
Naturally, the sisters are also huge on social media – Gigi has 26 million followers on Instagram alone – lending them an appearance of intimacy with their fans which earlier supermodels could never hope to achieve.
Caroline Rush CBE, the chief executive of the British Fashion Council, which runs the awards, said either one would be a worthy winner.
“Bella and Gigi are two distinctive personalities who seem to have found their feet so young,” she said. “Both are incredibly talented models but the nominations show that our voting panel also recognises the power of social media. Both young women are brilliant examples of businesswomen who have been able to harness the consumer demand to engage with the personality behind the brand.”
The Hadids’ CVs might read like those of countless American models, but there is something that sets them apart: they are of Palestinian-Dutch extraction, making them something of a rarity on the runway. Their father Mohamed Hadid is a wealthy property developer, said to be worth between $100 and $200 million, who is reputedly descended from the Bedouin princes of pre-war Palestine.
He grew up in Damascus and Beirut, where his own father – a former literature professor – worked for Voice of America radio. Hadid made his fortune developing luxury homes in Los Angeles, along with other high-end projects, including Ritz Carlton Hotels in Washington, New York and Aspen.
Gigi and Bella’s mother Yolanda van den Herik is a former model, who is herself said to be worth $54 million and is best known as a star of the American reality-television show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The sisters were brought up on a ranch in Santa Barbara before the family moved to Malibu.
In 2014, Bella moved to New York and began studying photography before dropping out to begin her modelling career. She had wanted to compete in the equestrian events at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but was forced to abandon riding after contracting Lyme disease, along with her mother and brother Anwar, who is also a model.
Gigi also moved to New York after leaving high school, where, like her sister, she signed with the agency IMG Models in 2013. Two years later, she appeared in the Pirelli calendar and was named Maybelline brand ambassador. Meanwhile, Bella worked with the likes of Victoria’s Secret younger line PINK, Ralph Lauren and Botkier Bags. But the meteoric rise of the Hadid girls has not been without its moments of controversy. In July 2014, Bella was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol on LA’s Pacific Coast Highway. She was sentenced to 25 hours’ community service and required to attend 20 hours of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. On US election night, as the results in favour of Donald Trump rolled in, Bella wrote on Twitter: “This is so f ***** up” and “What the f***”. Later, Gigi was criticised for performing an impression of Melania Trump imitating President Obama’s wife Michelle, while she was cohosting the American Music Awards. The model, who is dating Bradfordborn singer Zayn Malik, apologised to Mrs Trump and said she had “only the best wishes for our country”.