There are many paths a son can take. He can go into the family business. He can strike out on his own. Or, for the sons of celebrities, he can be a model. Indeed, the latter may be one of the most popular careers of 2025.<\/p>\n
Behold: the model son. Like their more established model-daughter counterparts, some are descendants of the \u201990s Supers themselves; others are the offspring of Oscar winners, rock stars, and sports legends. Vanity Fair explored the first crop of model sons hitting the runways<\/a> nearly a decade ago. It was 2016, when then teenagers like Jaden Smith, Anwar Hadid, Presley Gerber, and Rafferty Law had first entered the industry. By 2018, Dolce & Gabbana would cast eight model sons<\/a> to walk in their fall menswear show. Some from that first wave have kept up with the It-boy modeling life since then; others have followed different callings. But for every model son who\u2019s left the industry, a few more have stepped up to join. (In 2019, W also logged the lesser-discussed microcosm of model dads<\/a>, who are models who happen to be fathers; there are even model grandsons, such as Jack Nicholson\u2019s grandson Duke<\/a>, who appeared on Lana Del Rey\u2019s Norman Fucking Rockwell! album cover, and Bob Dylan\u2019s grandson Levi, who recently posed in sunglasses for Jacques Marie Mage<\/a> and popped up in a Levi\u2019s ad<\/a> with Beyonc\u00e9.)<\/p>\n Model sons tend to be multidisciplinary: Between film, music, art, fashion, and hot-sauce-making, they often have many pursuits to choose from. Modeling is perhaps the most natural, even innocuous, road for the child of a famous person to walk down. With their hereditary gifts of height and\/or striking cheekbones, or an uncanny resemblance to a face we already recognize, the reasoning behind celeb kids\u2019 presence on runways and in campaigns often lies somewhere between stunt casting and raw talent. Why not capitalize on one\u2019s inherited beauty and glamour? Besides, the people love to see the results of a celebrity Punnett square.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a general intrigue in people\u2019s icons, and how the \u2018icon\u2019 is passed down to the next generation,\u201d says publicist Alyssa Kane. Her client, Jackson Lewis Lee<\/a>\u2014son of Spike<\/a>\u2014recently walked in a runway show for another one of her clients, the preppy American brand J. Press. As Kane sees it, \u201cThere are two types of runway shows\u2026. Some shows are about, you know, having a hanger go down the runway, because it\u2019s about the clothes. And some brands are trying to educate or tell a story about who is the person that wears this clothing.\u201d For the latter sort, she notes, you\u2019ll want \u201cpeople that are recognizable, and then, of course, traditional models too.\u201d<\/p>\n Casting director Anita Bitton, who has shepherded the careers of several model sons\u2014including Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher\u2019s lookalike boys, Lennon and Gene\u2014says it helps, from a casting perspective, that model sons are accessible, as they tend to congregate in fashionable cities like London, Paris, or New York, and easy to spot, because \u201cthese kids grow up to look just like their parents.\u201d They also have a built-in level of comfort with the job\u2014especially if they grew up going to flashy events or being photographed by paparazzi, they\u2019re used to being in front of cameras. (Plus, she adds, as the business of men\u2019s fashion has grown<\/a>, so too has \u201cour interest in men as fashionable beings.\u201d)<\/p>\n