Abi Smith - Cara Delevingne -The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

AND THE WINNER IS.

I m happy to announce the award for Model of the Year, 2012 is

The atmosphere buzzed with excitement in the large ballroom of the prestigious Savoy hotel, London, as renowned German photographer Ellen von Unwerth opened the envelope that would reveal the name of the winner. It was the biggest night in the British fashion worlds calendar and the crme de la crme of designers, including Stella McCartney, Valentino, John Rocha, Manolo Blahnik and Julien Macdonald, had gathered for the Oscars of their industry. Alongside them were the exclusive fashionista contingent and the magazines, TV and radio media, plus an A-list heavy guest list: the likes of Princess Beatrice, Dita Von Teese, Prime Minister David Camerons wife, Samantha, Alexa Chung, Hollywood starlet Salma Hayek, a heavily pregnant Lily Allen and Colin Firths wife, Livia, all dressed in their glitziest designer garb to celebrate the pinnacle of British fashion on that chilly November evening.

Dressed in his finest suit, Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimmy Grimshaw and glamour puss James Bond actress Gemma Arterton hosted the prestigious event, which saw guests treated to a parade of lovingly prepared cocktails and bubbly as they arrived, while a lavish sit-down meal in the candlelit theatre and entertainment by singer Rita Ora awaited them later in the evening. As the champagne flowed and the celebrities gossiped about the past year of fashion, it was time to get down to business and to find out whom the industry itself had deemed worthy of winning one of its crowns.

As a collective hush went out across the auditorium, von Unwerth dutifully announced the winner and beamed out at the audience as a deafening applause greeted her announcement: The winner of the award for Model of the Year, 2012 is Cara Delevingne!

There could only really be one winner when it came down to it, though. In a category that was being fought out between male model David Gandy, Jourdan Dunn and Cara, the smart money had been on Delevingne from the moment the nominations had been revealed in September. Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, revealed that Cara had won because she had the diversity and originality that weve seen in all the greatest British models. And the BFC confirmed shed scooped the gong in recognition of her contribution to the international fashion scene over the previous year. They praised Caras unique sense of style and flair in front of the camera, adding, Walking an impressive 31 shows in September after being described as the star face of autumn/winter 2013 by British Vogue, she has a unique sense of style and flair in front of the cameras.

As she took to the stage to collect her award, the quirky youngster gave Ellen a big hug before addressing a crowd that would have probably given any normal 20-year-old severe stage fright. Not Cara, a self-confessed show-off and someone who had craved and welcomed attention from a young age. This is madness! she said as she stood in front of the microphone dressed all in Burberry a lime-green metallic shift dress and silver python wedges in a nod to the fashion label that had catapulted her career into the big-time, back in 2010. I cant begin to explain what a shock it is to be standing in front of you all right now. Its unbelievable, she gushed. Even to be nominated was such a shock, thank you so much.

The joy on Caras face said it all. Confidently standing clutching her award, all eyes were on her as she spoke of her heartfelt gratitude, making sure she thanked everyone involved in her career but unable to resist a little cheeky humour, too.

A very clever man told me that a good speech should be under 60 seconds, so dont worry, Im going to keep it short, she giggled. A big thank you to everyone Ive worked with since the beginning. It means so much to me that youve been supporting me, believing in my potential and for hiring my crazy self!

As the applause died down and the champagne flowed, Cara with the addition of her shiny new accessory had time to catch up with her peers. However, it wasnt going to be a late night for the in-demand youngster because the next morning she had an early flight to Miami for yet another job.

Its nice to go and have a good dance with friends, everyone in there I havent seen in a long time and theyre like family, so itll be fun, she told the assembled media, who all wanted to know how she felt about winning and how shed be celebrating. Im speechless. Its only just starting to sink in, she told one journalist. When they say your name its like one of those Zoolander moments when you think theyve said the wrong name. Its out of this world!

And it wasnt just the media who wanted to pass on their congratulations to the star: there were tweets coming in by the bucket load from her loyal Delevingners her name for her Twitter fans and others in the fashion industry. Fellow model Laura Bailey tweeted: Model of the year the extraordinary Miss @CaraDelevingne. Her celebrity pals were also quick to add their congratulations, including wifey Rita Ora, who performed at the event and later tweeted: Congratulations to my baby @Caradelevingne for winning supermodel of the year last night. Coz u baaaaad! Lov u.

But there was one person who didnt manage to celebrate with Cara until three days after the event: her big sister Poppy. The older sibling admitted she was upset that she hadnt been there to share the glory with her sis and wasnt able to pass on her congratulations until a few days later. I was gutted I wasnt there to see her little face and give her a squeeze. I tried to call her to say congratulations but I was unable to get hold of her for about three days! she revealed later in an interview.

So how had Cara, who had only started modelling professionally three years earlier, managed to pick up such an accolade and become such a mega-star? With more than a million followers on Twitter not to mention the growing number of parody Twitter accounts set up by her fans (there are 10 at the time of writing) and her Instagram page, which sees upwards of two million of her followers receive daily images of her pulling silly faces, she is one of the worlds most talked-about supermodels. In 2013, there were, on average, 115 daily news stories about her: she received 1.4 million mentions in the first part of the year, with 21,031 news stories in total at the end of August.

Being a famous supermodel is something of a rarity, given that the cycle of celebrity these days is filled with the likes of short-lived reality stars from short-running reality shows. Cara has done what her most famous predecessors Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell all did, back in the early 1990s: she has put supermodels back on the map when fame-seeking reality stars were threatening to take over. With a furiously strong work ethic, Cara doesnt have a singular personality trait that fuels the publics love for her. She is more of a complex character with a number of endearing features. Her tomboyish-ness, her love of fast food, her deliciously uncouth eyebrows, her wacky nature, her quirky Twitter posts Stop trying to define who you are and just be are all worth mentioning, and when combined it is her naturalness, her one of us persona, that makes us love her. Her complete unfabulousness, if you like she gorges on McDonalds and suffers from psoriasis, she gets drunk and embarrasses herself falling over, she spends time with her family and parties with mega-stars. OK, so the last bit is unlikely to happen to us mere mortals, but the essence of Cara is the same. Shes cool, she works hard and she enjoys life. So, how has a youngster with the vital statistics: height 5ft 9in, bust 31A, waist 24in, hips 34in, dress size UK 6 (EUR 34), shoe size UK 6 (EUR 39) become the global icon we just cant get enough of?