Last updated: September 2026
Meet 13 real rising model influencers gaining momentum in 2026 — verified runway credits, agency signings, and brand campaigns, sourced and fact-checked, not guessed.
A quick note on methodology before the list, because it matters for how you should read it: this isn’t a list built from follower-count screenshots or guesswork. Every model below has a documented, sourced career milestone from 2025–2026 — a runway booking, an agency signing, a brand campaign, or a verified press profile. Where a claim can’t be traced to a real source, it’s left out rather than estimated. If you’ve already read our rising American Instagram models piece, this is a different tier and a different lane entirely: that article covers U.S. social-first Instagram models in the 500K–2.2M follower range; this one covers the runway and editorial side of the industry, where “rising” is measured in shows booked and campaigns landed, not just follower growth.
How These Models Were Selected
Three criteria, all of which had to be independently verifiable:
- A documented 2025–2026 career milestone — a fashion-week booking, campaign, agency signing, or award recognition covered by a real fashion trade outlet.
- Active, verifiable social presence — a real, findable Instagram or TikTok account, not a bot-inflated or unverifiable one.
- No repeat names from our other model coverage — every name here is new to the site.
Runway & Editorial Breakouts
These are the models the fashion industry itself is currently betting on — booked by major houses, opening shows, and landing the kind of editorial attention that tends to precede a much bigger following.
1. Bhavitha Mandava
An NYU student who was scouted in a Brooklyn subway station, Bhavitha Mandava had one of the most talked-about rises of the past year. Less than two weeks after being discovered, she walked Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2025 show in Milan under creative director Matthieu Blazy. When Blazy moved to Chanel, he brought her with him — she opened Chanel’s 2025 Métiers d’Art show, becoming the first South Asian woman ever to do so. She’s since been profiled by The New York Times and has surpassed 400,000 Instagram followers, a case study in how quickly runway momentum can convert into mainstream visibility.
2. Alex Consani
American model and influencer Alex Consani, signed to IMG Models, made history as the first transgender woman to win Model of the Year at the British Fashion Council Awards. Her campaign résumé includes Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Chanel, Max Mara, and Stella McCartney. She’s built a TikTok following in the millions blending high-fashion work with a comedic, personality-driven online presence — proof that a model doesn’t have to choose between runway credibility and internet relatability.
3. Wisdom Kaye
Nigerian-American model Wisdom Kaye, represented by IMG Models across New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Milan, built his following through consistently inventive personal styling content before Vogue dubbed him “TikTok’s best-dressed guy.” In 2026, he became the face of a global Dior campaign — a significant validation of a career that started with fashion content, not a traditional agency scouting.
4. Lila Moss
The daughter of Kate Moss, Lila Moss has built a modeling career distinct from her mother’s legacy, making her runway debut at Paris Fashion Week walking for Miu Miu in 2021. She’s since appeared on the covers of British Vogue, Vogue Hong Kong, Vogue Japan, and Vogue España, and studies at Parsons School of Design alongside her modeling work — a combination that’s shaping her into a longer-term industry fixture rather than a one-season name.
5. Salem Mitchell
Salem Mitchell has built her career as both a working model and a vocal advocate for representation in fashion, a combination that’s earned her sustained press coverage from outlets including i-D and Nylon. Her influence extends beyond campaign work into shaping conversations about diversity in the industry itself — a different kind of “rising” than pure follower growth, but one brands increasingly value.
6. Achol Ayor
South Sudanese model Achol Ayor had a breakout Spring/Summer 2026 fashion month, with Milan serving as a particular highlight — she walked for Prada, Bottega Veneta, The Attico, Sportmax, Roberto Cavalli, Etro, and Alberta Ferretti in that city alone, with additional appearances at Saint Laurent, Simone Rocha, Tom Ford, and Alexander McQueen. That volume of major-house bookings in a single season is a strong signal she’s moved from newcomer to established runway regular.
Fashion-Week Regulars to Watch
These names may not have mega-follower counts yet, but their 2025 show counts — independently tracked by fashion data platforms — put them among the busiest working models of the year, which is often the clearest leading indicator of a bigger name to come.
7. Betsy Gaghan
American model Betsy Gaghan, signed with Next New York, walked 74 shows in 2025, including Chloé’s Spring/Summer 2026 show — one of the highest show counts of any model that season.
8. Hejia Li
Represented by Shanghai-based esee model management, Hejia Li walked 70 shows in 2025, including Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2026 show, making her one of the most consistently booked models coming out of the Chinese market.
9. Sara Caballero
Chilean-Spanish model Sara Caballero, signed with Elite Paris, walked 68 shows in 2025, including Victoria Beckham’s Spring/Summer 2026 show.
10. Awar Odhiang
Canadian model Awar Odhiang, represented by Mode Models Calgary, walked 67 shows in 2025, including Hermès — a notably prestigious booking for a model still building her profile.
11. Lauren Huyskens
Belgian model Lauren Huyskens has been building momentum through bookings including Sacai, earning her a place among the “faces to watch” names circulating in European fashion coverage heading into 2026.
Social-First Models to Watch
Not every rising model’s path runs through Fashion Week. These creators are building substantial, monetizable audiences with modeling as the throughline of their content — a different but equally valid version of “rising.”
12. Leana Deeb
Leana Deeb has built a fast-growing following as a fitness and lifestyle creator, known for motivating workout content and healthy meal-focused posts that resonate strongly with a wellness-driven audience — a niche that industry data consistently flags as one of the fastest-growing content categories in 2026.
13. Becca Bloom
A luxury lifestyle influencer with more than 5.3 million TikTok followers, Becca Bloom blends high-end fashion content with branding advice and relationship commentary, giving her a broader appeal than a single-niche fashion account and making her a frequent pick for brand partnerships that want lifestyle context around the product, not just a product shot.
Why This Tier of Model Actually Matters for Brands and Fans
The common thread across every name on this list isn’t follower count — it’s documented momentum. A model who opened a Chanel show, walked 70+ shows in a season, or landed a global campaign face role is operating on a trajectory that’s far more predictable than a viral-moment influencer whose growth could plateau as fast as it spiked. Fashion houses themselves are effectively doing due diligence you can piggyback on: when three or four major brands book the same face in the same season, that’s a stronger signal of staying power than a follower graph alone.
For brands, this tier also represents a pricing sweet spot: high enough profile to carry real editorial credibility, but not yet commanding the fees of an established supermodel — similar to the mid-tier dynamic we’ve covered on the Instagram side, just measured in runway bookings instead of follower count.
FAQs
A rising model typically builds credibility through agency representation, runway bookings, and editorial/campaign work first, with social following often following as a byproduct. A rising influencer usually builds the audience first and monetizes through brand partnerships directly, without necessarily going through traditional modeling channels. Several names on this list, like Wisdom Kaye and Alex Consani, represent a blend of both paths.
Fashion-industry data platforms and trade publications like FashionUnited and models.com track which models walk in officially registered Fashion Week shows each season, providing one of the more objective, verifiable metrics available in an industry that otherwise runs heavily on subjective buzz.
No — and unlike some influencer coverage, we’re not estimating one here. Runway and campaign fees for working models are typically confidential and vary enormously by booking, so any net worth figure for this specific group would be pure guesswork rather than a grounded estimate. We’ve focused this piece on verifiable career milestones instead.
Fashion is fast-moving by nature — some of these names will be established stars within a year or two, and new faces will emerge each season. We’ll revisit and update this piece as the industry shifts.
Final Thoughts
What stands out looking at this group together is how many different paths lead to “rising” in 2026 — a subway discovery that led to a Chanel debut, a decade of consistent show-walking finally compounding into recognition, or a TikTok styling account that caught a luxury house’s attention. There’s no single formula anymore, which is arguably what makes this generation of models more interesting to follow than any single metric could capture.
All career details, agency representations, and show counts referenced in this article are drawn from named, dated fashion press sources, including FashionUnited, Coveteur, Elle.be, Metricool, and Wikipedia-sourced model profiles, current as of September 2026.
Read more: 13 Rising Model Influencers Breaking Through in 2026 (Runway, Fashion & Fitness)Celebrities Who Came From Surprisingly Poor Backgrounds
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