Raquel Zimmerman: V: Inez and Vinoodh Sasha Pivovora: Vogue Italia: Meisel

There's an interesting showdown brewing over at MDC. General agreement among the clients and contacts feeding us info at the day job is Gemma Ward has pretty much transcended her No 1 slot on the Top 50 since she now behaves in that iconic way of working at her leisure. For that, you can't blame a girl who's been treading the mills from age 15 ! The big Q is who inherits her spot as No 1? My phones are lighting up with advocates for two frontrunners, IMG's artistic Russian Sasha Pivovora and the eternal Brazilian must-have, Raquel Zimmerman. Right now it is a deadlock so it would be fun to get some feedback from the commited modelwatchers out there. Here are the relative pros and cons of our two contenders.

ARGUMENTS FOR RAQUEL:
1. The girl, after working tirelessly for the last 7 years deserves No 1 by merit of her track record , her proven longevity and her body of work. In other words Raquel's 7 years beats Sasha's 3.
2.As a physical presence in both runway shows and in photo-shoots, Raquel looms as the better model in terms of emotional range, body type and editorial versatility.
3.Raquel connects to the entire idea of fashion, is a great backstage politician and by stint of her warm and charismatic personality has kept a wide range of clients , from Vogue to Fendi to Chloe to Valentino (SS08 if she's in the final edit) in the past 5 years

ARGUMENTS AGAINST RAQUEL:
1. No standout, long term make-up contract or multi-million dollar client commitment as seen in the likes of former No 1's like Daria, Liya, Karolina, Gisele or Angela. In other words, a great seasonal fashion model but not a contract model.
2.Obvious money bookings for department store catalogues has kept Raquel's booking record from being nearly as immaculate as Sasha's who has been nothing but exclusive, exclusive, exclusive, her ENTIRE career
3.At least the current No 1, Gemma has made an effort at being a public figure in her forays into Hollywood, her Vanity Fair booking with George Clooney and her general air of mystery. Raquel it is argued would be the most "anoymous" model out of a generation of painfully anoymous models to hit No 1.

ARGUMENTS FOR SASHA
1. Her run as THE face of Prada for two and a half years in a row is unprecedented . Given the power of Prada as a star making vehicle, this fact marks Sasha as a historic model on the level of the Angela Lindvalls and the Amber Valettas as long term faces of the house.
2.Sasha's booking record is crystal clear, ultra-blue chip and as immaculate as immaculate can be. There has never been a dip in the quality of her jobs, unlike the ambigious state of Raquel Zimmerman's career prior to the moment when she opened the FW 04 Prada show.
3. Sasha has a far better track history as a cover model, including four covers in Sept 07 (British, Japanese and Russian Vogue+Numero) alone, not to mention 3 recent covers of Italian Vogue and apparently, there are still even more cover level bookings in her cycle.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST SASHA
1.One brand alone should not make a model No 1 at MDC. Until Sasha goes into a post Prada-exclusive booking cycle her career potential cannot be fully evaluated. Will she be coveted by Chanel, Valentino, Dior, Vuitton etc after being so long associated only with Prada? The long term alignment for instance with Calvin has not seen Natalia Vodianova become red hot with subsequent campaign clients. (Not that, for the record, Natalia gives a damn).
2.As with Raquel, Sasha boasts no long term multi-million cosmetic/fragrance/VS contract on the order of a former No 1 like Gisele. If she gets this anytime soon however, Sasha would automatically graduate to the No 1 slot regardless of who might have preceded her in the ranking.
3.Simply put, haters complain that Sasha is too short and therefore not an ideal couture or editorial icon in the way that Raquel is. Sasha is accused of being a "cold and beautiful face and nothing else" This con I'd question though and Exhibit No 1 would be the iconic career of another 'Too Short" legend, Kate Moss.

Well these are the facts as they have been presented. What do you think kids?