Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner dominated 2015 in the modeling world, so it came as a shock to most when Models.com Model of the Year Industry Awards announced that this year's highest honor went to neither of the two, but instead to Anna Ewers. The gorgeous German model is well-deserving of the award, but people were a little shocked to see neither Hadid nor Jenner in that top spot, even though Hadid was listed as runner-up and was crowned the readers' choice Model of the Year with Jenner as the runner-up.
The award winners are determined by votes from 25 top designers, photographers, hair and makeup artists, casting directors and editors, including Love magazine's Katie Grand, French stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, W's Edward Enniful and various other major fashionistas, according to Yahoo Style.
Ewers, 22, was selected as "the singular face that defined the year as a whole with ubiquitous industry demand and presence... via top-tier bookings with the best photographers, stylists and clients earning next-level visibility, making them 2015's foremost star." She's appeared on several major magazine covers and walked the runway for high-fashion brands like Alexander Wang, Tory Burch and Michael Kors.
The awards are broken down into 11 categories: Model of the Year Women, Model of the Year Men, Breakout Star Women, Breakout Star Men, Comeback Star of the Year, Social Media Star Women, Social Media Star Men, Humanitarian, Street Style, Celebrity Model Women and Celebrity Model Male.
This year, Hadid, 20, and Jenner, 19, not only stood out in the Model of the Year category, but dominated the social media category as well. Mormon model Lucky Blue Smith completely took over most of the male categories, while Justin Bieber dominated the celebrity male category. Rihanna and Cara Delevingne were awarded in the celebrity female category and, shockingly, Derek Zoolander won both the industry and readers' choice for Comeback of the Year.
Here are the winners and nominees for the 2015 Models.com Model of the Year Industry Awards:
Model of the Year: Women
Industry's Vote Winner: Anna Ewers
Industry's Vote Runner-up: Gigi Hadid
Readers' Choice Winner: Gigi Hadid
Reader's Choice Runner-up: Kendall Jenner
Nominees: Andreja Pejic, Binx Walton, Grace Hartzel, Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn, Julia Nobis, Karlie Kloss, Lexi Boling, Maartje Verhoef, Natasha Poly
