Liu Dan

They are regarded as paragons of style and glamour, but the life cycle of a model - super or otherwise - can be a brief and brutal one.

The top models in Singapore can easily earn a five-figure sum for appearing in an ad campaign. But whereas most working stiffs are only getting started in their early 20s, that is the age when many models start to find work drying up.

Most models tend to start in their teens and many get 'sidetracked' after six or seven years, says Watson Tan, director of Upfront Models Singapore, 39.

"Because of drinking and partying, many gain weight and lose focus. Modelling careers can be long, but models need to have discipline when it comes to maintaining their physique. They are selling their beauty after all."

Models can easily find themselves top of the heap one day and down in the dumps the next. In this competitive industry, there is no lack of fresher pretty faces waiting for their big break.

Says fashion show producer Daniel Boey, 44: "Models are their own product and they have to take care of their skin, body and health. I have seen models who think they can survive on a diet of cigarettes and alcohol, but their skin loses luminosity and tone. That whole grungy, druggy thing is over."

As he puts it: "No model is indispensable. Everyone wants to look for the next big thing. Now, a model is just a mannequin."

It is not always the case, of course. Supermodels like Naomi Campbell, 39, Christy Turlington, 40, and Linda Evangelista, 44, are considered celebrities in their own right and still star in ad campaigns for major brands.

The likes of Kate Moss, 35, Heidi Klum, 36, and Tyra Banks, 36, have also parlayed their modelling cachet into success in fields like fashion design and reality TV.

On the homeground, there are success stories like Junita Simon, 32, who is also known for being a polished emcee, and Sheila Sim, 26, who is giving acting a shot.

Indeed, diversifying into other areas is a good way to prolong the longevity of a model's career.

Says Tan: "I usually advise models who have reached a certain peak not to take their career for granted and not to spend all their money, but think about starting a business.

"A Kate Moss type of supermodel who can keep going for so long at the top of her game is a very rare species - there is only one out of so many."

This week, we speak to three catwalk stunners, who are at different phases of a model's life cycle, to find out how they are dealing with the perks and perils of living the beautiful life.

Beijing beauty

With her strong brows and full pout, Beijing-born model Liu Dan does the smouldering look particularly well - and fashion photographers have noticed.

Since embarking on a modelling career nine years ago, she has been photographed doing her signature intense gaze, lips-parted thing in the pages of top fashion titles such as Vogue (the Chinese, Italian and French editions, no less), as well as gracing the ad campaigns of brands like Guess and Shanghai Tang.

Her latest gig, as the face of Ion Orchard, is what brought her to town last October.

Outside the pages of glossy fashion spreads, however, Liu is more an approachable girl-next-door than a haughty clotheshorse - very softspoken and mild-mannered.

At the age of 24, this only child of an accountant mother and a travel industry executive father is considered one of the most high-profile Chinese models working in the international fashion industry today, a cohort that includes established names like Shirley Gao, Emma Pei, Danni Li and Shu Pei.

"I think Westerners still think of my look, especially my almond-shaped eyes, as exotic," she muses, when asked about the secret to her success.

"And the opportunities for Asian models are getting even better as the world starts to understand China more. When I started out in Paris, there were not many Asian models. Now, there is a lot more competition."

She started modelling part-time at the age of 15, after becoming one of the top 10 finalists of a modelling contest she entered during a school holiday. Finding the whole experience "quite interesting", she took off for Paris two years later to find more work, despite parental reservations about the world of modelling.

Her father, especially, "was a bit worried because he thought I might be exposed to bad influences", she says.

Not knowing a word of French or English, she found the initial months tough-going.

"Out of 10 auditions, I managed to go to only three or four because I kept getting lost," she recalls.

"My agency then arranged for a car service to chauffeur me around, but it didn't tell me I had to pay for the service. It charged me quite a lot of money for it afterwards."

Thankfully, as she puts it, "in my line of work, communicating through facial expressions is more important than language".

Today, she is based in New York and returns to Beijing regularly for work and play.

Despite having strutted the runways of the world's top fashion capitals, she is still very fond of her hometown.

"Shanghai is more fashion-forward than Beijing, which can be quite conservative when it comes to style," she concedes.

"But Beijing people have more substance," she adds cheekily.

Hometown loyalties aside, Liu believes that China's fashion industry, like its powerhouse economy, is developing rapidly.

"There have been many improvements in recent years. Not only are there more outstanding models now, make-up artists and stylists have also become more professional because many of them have gained more international exposure and experience."

She also points to the rise of Chinese designers like Guo Pei and Qi Gang, both known for flamboyant, theatrical creations, as a sign that China is coming into its own as a major force in fashion.

As for life as a top model, Liu views her nearly decade-long stint in the fashion world with a simple philosophy: "I want to look forward to each assignment I get and be satisfied with how I perform."

In the meantime, she is doing her own bit to move Beijing in a fashion-forward direction: She recently opened a boutique there that stocks clothes and accessories she brings in from New York.

"I would love to design my own clothes in the future," she said.

Man on a mission

Being a male model has got to be one of the most stereotyped jobs around.

Just ask David Gandy, the chiselled British hunk best known for posing in his underwear for Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue perfume in 2007.

"I think everyone has misconceptions about male models thanks pretty much to Zoolander," says the 29-year-old of the satirical movie on dumb hunks.

"While everybody knows female models like Gisele (Bundchen) or Naomi (Campbell), the man on the street probably can't name a male model. So the only real access people have is to this film and they think you are going to be an airhead.

"Hopefully I'm changing that a bit with the interviews I do."

He was in town last October to attend Dolce & Gabbana's opening party for its duplex boutique in Ion Orchard.

With interests ranging from antique furniture to fast cars (he drives a supercharged Jaguar XKR), the 1.88m charmer is more than capable of holding a perfectly intelligent conversation.

He is also one of the top male models in the business - Forbes Magazine named him the world's third most successful male model, behind American Sean O'Pry and Canadian Matt Gordon, in June last year.

He plays down this honour by pointing out that the men "are not even in the same league" as their female counterparts.

Bundchen, for example, earns close to US$15 million a year.

According to the Forbes article, top male models earn about $200,000 to $500,000 annually.

Still, this is a far cry from his previous part-time job of delivering cars to car magazines for reviews while he was majoring in multimedia and computing at the University of Gloucestershire.

He ventured into modelling when his friends submitted his picture to a modelling competition in 2002, which he won.

He spent the next five years working mainly on shoots for look-books - catalogue-style portfolios that show the latest collections of fashion labels - until the Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue ad campaign turned him into modelling royalty.

"When I first came into the industry, it was all about the androgynous skinny model," he says of the early noughties.

So when Gandy, in all his beefy, six-pack glory stripped down to his briefs for Light Blue, the fashion industry and hot-blooded women around the world sat up and took notice.

A year later, he was the sole star of Dolce & Gabbana's 2008 calendar.

He has since appeared in ad campaigns for brands ranging from Ermenegildo Zegna to Zara and worked with top photographers such as Mario Testino and Steven Meisel.

"I hope I've helped to split the industry 50-50 so that guys who are like me can share the limelight in the fashion world," says the London-based bachelor.

There is still a disparity between the fashion world and the real world though.

"I fit into Dolce & Gabbana well but not many other brands. Recently, I tried on Paul Smith and some other brands in size L but they were still too small for me," says Gandy, whose fitness regimen consists of gym workouts five times a week.

Besides defying stereotypes of body size, he has also made it a point to not be seen as just some arm candy of female celebrities.

"A lot of male models are known because of who they date. There's Jesus and Madonna or Jamie Dornan and his ex-girlfriend Keira Knightley. That is how they get famous and I've been avoiding that."

Even though British tabloids often link him to fellow Brit model Chloe Pridham, he declares: "I am single."

He adds: "Apparently I've been dating a musician in the United States and also a Victoria's Secret model, so my life is made out to be a lot more glamorous than it actually is."

China rising

For someone who began modelling to win a computer, Liu Wen has certainly come a long way.

Five years into her career and the 21-year-old is now a regular face on international runways from New York to Paris, where she has walked for luxe labels including Chanel, Hermes and Lanvin.

At the recent spring/summer 2010 shows, the 1.78m stunner with an irresistible smile racked up a whopping 70 appearances - second only to French model Constance Jablonski, 19, who was in 72 shows.

Last month, she also became the first Chinese model to appear in the Victoria's Secret annual lingerie fashion show (above), proving that she has both commercial as well as high-fashion appeal.

Yet, the willowy looker is refreshingly unaffected by the fuss surrounding her.

"I'm so busy that I don't have time to let it all sink in. The only downtime I have is backstage before shows, where I'll be resting, eating and even sleeping," she says with a laugh.

The Hunan native was in Singapore in November to attend the opening of the Burberry boutique in Ion Orchard.

Asked if she is set to take over from Du Juan as China's reigning supermodel, she replies diplomatically in Mandarin: "I don't think any Chinese models are out there to compete with one other.

"Rather, with Chinese models becoming increasingly prominent in the international fashion scene, we are all here to help raise people's awareness of China."

Although she is more comfortable speaking in Mandarin, the bubbly clotheshorse is more than game to chat in the conversational English she has picked up during her travels.

She was in high school when she entered a local modelling contest in 2005 to try to win a laptop.

Her unexpected win saw her moving to Beijing, where she quickly made the covers of the Chinese editions of FHM, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

"From the beginning, I've always just taken it one step at a time and had fun," she says.

"My parents did feel I was too young to model but they allowed me to pursue it. Now they're proud of me and I have no regrets," says Liu, who splits her time among the four fashion capitals of Paris, New York, London and Milan.

Her father is an interior designer and her mother is a housewife.

With work taking her to far-flung corners of the world, the only child says she copes with the occasional pangs of loneliness by calling her parents.

"I'll tell them about the good things that happen to me, such as the designers I'm working with," says Liu, whose favourite labels include Alexander Wang, Jean Paul Gaultier and Rag And Bone.

"But I won't tell them I'm lonely or sad because I don't want them to worry."

In any case, she is not about to let those brief bouts get in the way of her career plans.

"I'm enjoying what I'm doing and I intend to stick with it for as long as I can. I hope to be like (Taiwanese actress- model) Lin Chi-ling, who began as a model but later branched out into hosting and acting.

"There are many opportunities for models besides being just a pretty face."

Diversifying into other fields may be just what she needs to gain more recognition in China, where she is just one of millions of pretty faces.

"In fashion capitals such as New York and Paris, fans or photographers will stop me to chat or take photos," says Liu, whose off-duty style consists of on-trend boyfriend blazers or leather jackets, skinny jeans and tough utilitarian boots.

"But in China, people don't recognise me."

She muses: "Maybe it is because the celebrity-centric culture in China is stronger so people find it difficult to recognise models, whose job requires them to change their looks constantly."

If all else fails, she can always fall back on her childhood ambition of becoming a teacher.

She says: "As a teacher, you are in charge and you can have a positive influence on the lives of many children."