1. Tamsyn Rose
The former student from Hamilton, won Miss Waikato in 1996 and was runner-up in Miss New Zealand the following year. Then 19, Tamsyn Rose was propelled into a modelling career, winning contracts in Australia and Japan before heading to Italy. She became an international model, based in Milan, for eight years where she graced catwalks across Europe for Versace. A singer and performer from the age of 4, Rose launched a music career while in Milan, releasing three singles. She toured the country with her music before returning to New Zealand. Rose settled back in Waikato and had a brief stint in real estate. She married a Matamata man and the couple have two children. Rose turned her attention to style consulting in 2008, teaming up with make-up artist Michelle Devereux to bring Waikato women a makeover weekend. In 2013 Rose teamed up with early childhood educator Fiona Williams to form MooMoo Publishers, and together with illustrator Kat Quin Merewether they have produced a series of children's books aimed at helping preschoolers to learn.
2. Penny Pickard
Discovered at the age of 14, Penny Pickard has been modelling around the world for 20 years. As a teenager in 1993 Pickard was at the end of her fourth-form year when she was spotted shopping with her sister in High St by Glenn Hunt, from the now-defunct youth culture magazine Pavement.
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The Papakura schoolgirl appeared on the cover of Pavement in January 1994 and by early May she had modelled in Sydney. By the end of that month she was in New York to meet renowned agent Eileen Ford of Ford Models who liked Pickard's on-trend grunge appeal. Since then she has modelled in photo shoots in New York, London, Milan and Auckland, earning up to 12,000 ($18,000) for a couple of days' work. Pickard graced the cover of Fashion Quarterly many times and appeared on the covers of teen mags. She popped up on the runway at New for Stolen Girlfriends Club and has given advice to wannabes on New Zealand's Next Top Model. In 2011, aged 31, Pickard was living on the North Shore and was several years into a degree in philosophy at the University of Auckland, which she fitted in around modelling assignments.
3. Danielle Hayes
At 19 Danielle Hayes' life turned upside down when she won the second series of New Zealand's Next Top Model after entering for a dare. Hayes is probably the most successful of the three series winners. The freckle-faced beauty was signed to several modelling agencies in New Zealand, Australia, America, Europe and South Africa. She modelled at New Zealand Fashion Week for various fashion designers before beginning an international career. In 2013 she hit the Big Apple and was photographed on the catwalk for a couple of up-and-coming designers at NY Fashion Week. The same year she was named one of the "next generation of catwalk stars" by Style.com. Hayes has also found success in South Africa, posing for editorials for Elle South Africa and walking in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Africa. In 2014 the 24-year-old turned heads walking for Jean Paul Gaultier at Paris Fashion Week. In 2012 the sometimes outspoken Hayes became embroiled in a Twitter spat with a 12-year-old cancer victim, exchanging unkind tweets in an argument over Hayes' criticism of Jaime Ridge.
4. Colin Mathura-Jeffree
Colin Mathura-Jeffree was born in New Zealand to a Fiji-Indian mother and a Pakeha father. His modelling career took off in his 20s and took him to Europe, Singapore and India, including work with designers Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier. He was a runway and editorial model before moving into acting and TV presenting, starting with Xena: Warrior Princess in 1999. Mathura-Jeffree found TV fame as a runway coach on New Zealand's Next Top Model and as host of New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker in 2013. He was also a guest judge on America's Next Top Model in 2010 and was cast in 2008 Bollywood Downunder movie Love Has No Language opposite Miss India Celina Jaitley. He has been a beauty pageant and Fashion in the Field judge and was the VIP Ambassador for New Zealand Fashion Week in 2011 and named New Zealand's Man of the Year in 2012 by social page photographer Norrie Montgomery. He also does work for a number of charities. Now aged 42, Mathura-Jeffree is the face of Tourism Australia shopping and shows and Tourism NZ's American advertising campaign.
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