Inspiration is bound to take many shapes, hide behind many guises and bear many flavours, and when it comes to fashion and style it can go from realistic to pure fantasy, but it’s the mix of fearlessness and polish to usually spark the creative genius. Britain’s Next Top Model contestant Bethan Sowerby takes on the role of the street-style muse for photographer Adam Marc Williams,…

A red dress, a statement (and a powerful one at that), an exclamation point that brings about the storm in Paris, even on days when the sky looks both perfectly clear, and perfectly blue. Borrowing some of the city’s immeasurable amounts of chic, contrasting Femke’s platinum blonde locks and carefully enveloping her otherwise flawless physique, Juan F. Barba’s sophisticated-meets-sexy design lensed by Julia Kiecksee is beauty,…

While frilly headpieces and lavish jewellery numbers go up against each other in striving to enrich Anique Van Tol’s retro-inspired party looks, it’s her peroxide blonde bob set against a pair of bright blue eyes to ultimately serve her as the best accessory. A bold, graphic eye make-up and matching nails round off the lacy looks photographed by Y-PHOTO.

It’s far more rare a thing for male models to distinguish themselves by their hair colour – especially artificially – but Benjamin Jarvis’ peroxide blonde stands out a mile. The blue-eyed English model was lighting up after the Rick Owens show at Paris fashion week when I took this shot.

Russian model Sasha Luss has undeniable been one of the break-out stars of the year, what with that platinum blonde hair and all. This shoot by Patrick Demarchelier for the January 2014 issue of Vogue Russia seems a perfect way for the magazine to usher in a New Year – not to mention being evidence that graphic blue eyeshadow is going nowhere as a trend.

Who ruled 2013, from the runway to the street? It's a tough call, but here are 10 picks for the best models of the year.

Picking a new hair colour might be the very first step taken towards setting foundation for an extreme makeover, as the rest usually falls into place quite effortlessly. Other shades of makeup, an altered sense of style, a whole new attitude follow accordingly, until the statement becomes absolute, and the transformation complete. Not everyone can rock platinum blonde, but in seeing how utter spectacular it…

Korean model Soo Joo covers the winter 2013 issue of Wonderland while draped in fabulous furs. The platinum blonde model can also be seen putting her kohl-lined eyes into work with a captivating stare.

The thing about delicate, embellished, ethereal evening gowns is that they can lend themselves equally to visions of darkness as to those of pure prettiness or whimsy. The whimsical shots may be more likely to end up on your Pinterest wall, but it’s the dark ones that linger in your corners of your mind. An Le is particularly equipped to produce these cinematic, emotive, fine-art…

Every element here is set to wow: multiplied, they’re unstoppable. Sasha Luss’ platinum blonde hair, her lithe, long legs, and the Lolita-meets-leather dress/top that’s as sweet in cut as it is sexy in fabric and fit. A pair of denim cut-off shorts underneath were the perfect way of keeping the fetishy top half modest and a bit on the casual side.