Carmen Kass

Carmen who is one of the richest Estonians and one of the best paid models of all time has also faced severe criticism. In 2001 she was featured in a New York Times article entitled ‘I’m the Richest Girl in Estonia’ and made a cameo appearance as herself in the film 'Zoolander', which parodied the fashion industry. Apart from this, several outrageous and caricatured portrayals of her have appeared in the pop media.

Between the years of 1998 and 2004 Kass was dating restaurant owner Richie Akiva.

Since late 2004, she is reported to be seeing Eric Lobron, a German chess champion, after parting ways with her former fling.

Carmen Kass was born on September 14, 1978 in Tallinn, Estonia. She was raised in Mäo village and was raised by her mother. Her father, a chess teacher in Põlva, was not involved in her upbringing.

Kass got a start in modeling from an early age when she was discovered in a supermarket by an Italian modeling scout in her native Estonia in 1992. Still a teenager, she resisted pressure to have cosmetic surgery, to change her lips.

Kass moved to Milan and then Paris in 1996, receiving early exposure at the age of 18 on the covers of French and American ‘Vogue’ as well as many other prominent international fashion magazines.

By 1999, Kass was already enjoying success as a runway model for high fashion brands like ‘Michael Kors’, ‘Donna Karran’ and ‘Dolce & Gabbana’, as well as opening and closing the ‘Victoria's Secret Fashion Show’ in November of that year. She also made appearances in advertisements for a wide variety of brands including ‘Gucci’, ‘Versace’, and ‘Marc Jacobs’, and appeared on the cover of ‘Harper’s Bazaar’.

In 2000, she landed several major victories for her career. She signed a contract to be the face of ‘Christian Dior's J'adore’, won the ‘VH1/Vogue Model of the Year’ award, and was featured on Vogue's November cover alongside fellow top earning supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

In 2002, ‘USA Today’ estimated Carmen to be the second highest earning model in the world. She opened and closed the ‘Marni’, ‘Yves St. Laurent’ and ‘Oscar de la Renta’ spring shows, as well as walking the runway for several major brands.

When her native country of Estonia joined the ‘European Union’ in May of 2004, Kass ran for European Parliament as part of Estonia's ruling ‘Res Publica Party’. Despite receiving 2315 votes from the Estonian electorate, she was not elected.

Like her father she plays chess, and in 2004 she was elected president of the ‘Estonian National Chess League’ and ran an unsuccessful campaign for her hometown to host the next Chess Olympics.

Carmen Kass has opened and closed several prominent fashion shows for distinguished labels throughout the years. One of her early triumphs saw her opening and closing for the ‘Victoria's Secret’ show, in 1999.