Inspired by Harper’s Bazaar‘s tribute to history’s most (annoyingly) handsome men, here is the definitive, irrefutable list of the women who deserve the same accolade

GETTY IMAGES

Inspired by Harper’s Bazaar‘s tribute to history’s most (annoyingly) handsome men, here is the definitive, irrefutable list of the women who deserve the same accolade

GETTY IMAGES1 of 32Lupita Nyong’o

For her turn in 12 Years a Slave, Nyong’o won the 2013 Best Supporting Actress Oscar becoming the first African actress to win the award and the first Kenyan actress to win an Oscar of any kind. It also happened to catapult her to the top of every magazine in the world’s ‘best-dressed’ and ‘most beautiful’ lists, where she has remained ever since.

GETTY IMAGES2 of 32Blake Lively

Lively’s breakthrough role came in teen drama Gossip Girl, during the filming of which she dated her onscreen boyfriend – life imitating art and all that. She’s since appeared in multiple films including an impressive performance in The Shallows and married Ryan Reynolds. A lucky man.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES3 of 32Zoë Kravitz

The actress and band front-woman who inherited her father Lenny’s swagger and musical talent, Zoë Kravitz recently appeared in the hit show Big Little Lies to widespread acclaim. She can also crochet, which is nice.

GETTY IMAGES4 of 32Emma Watson

Harry Potter’s best friend, millionaire, actor, philanthropist, gender equality advocate and global book club founder (cool, hey?), there aren’t many boxes that 27-year-old Brit Emma Watson hasn’t ticked.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

BRIGITTE BARDOT5 of 32Brigitte Bardot

The original blonde bombshell, ‘B.B.’ was an actress, model and one of the biggest sex symbols of the 50s and 60s before becoming an animal rights activist and – somewhat regrettably – a convicted race hate inciter in her later years.

GETTY IMAGES6 of 32Audrey Hepburn

“I don’t understand why people see me as beautiful” the British actress – regarded as one of the greatest screen icons of all time – apparently used to tell her son, leading to the obvious question: what hope is there for any of the rest of us?ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES7 of 32Natalie Portman

Oscar-winning actress and Harvard University graduate, Natalie Portman is someone with talent to burn who also happens to be one of the great beauties of the modern celebrity era. Oh, and she’s also a promising director now. Expect her to cure cancer around 2035.

GETTY IMAGES8 of 32Freida Pinto

2008’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire was an over-rated film in all but one respect: it launched the career of Freida Pinto. A darling of fashion magazines ever since, she is also considered in her home country as “arguably the biggest global star from India.”ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES9 of 32Jessica Chastain

Over the past 5 years Jessica Chastain has quietly established herself as one of the most talented and versatile screen actress working today. We say quietly because – the odd jaw-dropping red carpet appearance aside – she keeps her private life private, preferring to let a growing body of work speak for itself.

GETTY IMAGES10 of 32M.I.A.

London-born Mathangi Arulpragasam is a creative polymath: rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, director, visual artist, activist, photographer and fashion designer. Oh – and a model. Naturally.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES11 of 32Ursula Andress

Best known as the original Bond girl having starred alongside Sean Connery in Dr. No, Ursula Andress’ entrance in that film as (cringe) ‘Honey Ryder the shell diver’ was voted #1 ‘greatest sexy movie moment’ in a Channel 4 survey some forty years later. “This bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent,” she later said of the white two-piece still etched into the minds of generations of movie-goers.

GETTY IMAGES12 of 32Monica Belucci

Starting her career as a model, Monica Belucci moved into acting in the early 90s. You may know her as the star of The Matrix Reloaded, Enter the Matrix or The Matrix Revolutions – all the Matrix films that aren’t The Matrix, basically – or for making rather patronising headlines as ‘the oldest ever Bond girl’ in 2015’s Spectre. But perhaps her most interesting work known by English audiences was as a rape victim in Gaspar Noé’s extremely controversial Irréversible.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES13 of 32Beyoncé

There is little new to observe about Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, arguably the most powerful female celebrity in the world. Celebrated musician, businesswoman and activist, in her spare time she makes Jay-Z look like the luckiest man in the world.

GETTY IMAGES14 of 32Halle Berry

2002 was the Great Year of Halle Berry, when she’d just won a Best Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball and had enough credibility banked to slum it as asex symbol in the ludicrous Swordfish and Die Another Day, which actually made Swordfish look like Citizen Kane. Anyway – then came Catwoman and Cloud Atlas and bunch of other crap and now she’s perhaps best known as looking better with short hair than any other woman in history.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES15 of 32Marilyn Monroe

No name is as immediately synonymous with female beauty than Marilyn Monroe, the 1950s screen siren whose glamorous public life obscured an often tragic private life. Despite playing the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype demanded by her era, off camera she was integral in building her own star power and in 1954 founded her own film production company because she was unhappy with the derisory contract offers from major studios.

GETTY IMAGES16 of 32Marine Vacth

They say there is no beauty like a French beauty (it’s the French who say that, by the way), and in the case of model-turned-actress Marine Vacth they may have a point. The star of 2013’s foreign language hit Jeune & Jolie (‘Young & Beautiful’), her upturned gaze briefly adorned the sides of buses and tube stations across London causing more than a few commuter collisions.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES17 of 32Scarlett Johansson

Many journalists have made fools of themselves over the years trying to capture the essence of Scarlett Johansson’s beauty in words, so we won’t. What we will venture is that beside the obvious, a lot of it is to with her voice: husky, sardonic and – would you guess it – beautiful when she sings. Still too much? OK we’ll stop.

GETTY IMAGES18 of 32Miranda Kerr

The only celebrated Australian beauty known in Britain not to have once had a part on Neighbours, Miranda Kerr became at model at 13 and has never looked back, becoming one of the most bankable faces in the world for beauty companies, fashion labels and magazines looking to sell copies including, in 2013, us.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES19 of 32Carey Mulligan

Anyone who has seen Carey Mulligan’s mournful 5 minute-long singing scene in Shame will be left in no doubt she deserves her place on this list. A BAFTA-winner with a string of quality films to her name, the fact she is married to one of Mumford & Sons can be taken as proof she has a generous heart and tolerant spirit, too.

RIHANNA20 of 32Rihanna

The biggest pop star in the world is, as these things tend to go, also one of the world’s most beautiful women. With an output of ridiculous consistency – eight albums in 10 years tell its own story – there’s barely a day that goes by the average person in the west doesn’t see Rihanna’s face somewhere, doing something – usually somewhere and something pretty cool.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES21 of 32Sophia Loren

The Italian actress’s heaving trophy cabinet includes Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Grammys and – of course – an Oscar, the latter being particularly impressive as it made her the first artist to win one for a performance in a foreign language (in 1962 for Two Women – remember that for your next pub quiz).

GETTY IMAGES22 of 32Gigi Hadid

Still only 23, Gigi (and her sister Bella) has already become one of the most successful models in the industry. A glittering career of being hired to sell even more lovely things awaits, and presumably a move into acting at some point.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES23 of 32Eva Green

Some things Eva Green is on record saying she likes. Staying at home. Not going to wild parties. Relaxing by a fire with a glass of wine. Taxidermy. Collecting preserved skulls and insects. Wait – what? That interest in the macabre is somewhat reflected in the French actress’s film record, with stand-out roles in Sin City and several projects with Tim Burton in her back catalogue. She also starred in Casino Royale, the best Bond of the Daniel Craig era.

GETTY IMAGES24 of 32Eva Mendes

Not many people consider becoming a Catholic nun and the end up being a famous actress instead. Fewer still can be found in the music videos of the Pet Shop Boys, Aerosmith, The Strokes, CeeLo Green and – biggest of all – Will Smith’s 1998 smash ‘Miami’. Even fewer again run their own bed linen and dinnerware business. All of which is a round about way of saying: these are some interesting facts about beautiful person Eva Mendes.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES25 of 32Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell is famous for many things: being the most successful black supermodel of all time (and speaking out about the inequality she faced in doing so), once dating Mike Tyson and Robert De Niro and being involved in a surprisingly large amount of assault convictions that involved the misuse of a mobile phone. She is also, without doubt, one of the most beautiful women of all time.

GETTY IMAGES26 of 32Alicia Vikander

2015 very much belonged to the Swedish actress when two roles – as a robot in sci-fi sleeper hit Ex Machina and a painter whose partner undergoes sex reassignment surgery in The Danish Girl – earned her a BAFTA nod and an Oscar respectively. Impeccable acting credentials established, she was most recently seen shooting wolves while performing backflips as the next Lara Croft.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

GETTY IMAGES27 of 32Zoe Saldana

One of the few members of the Hollywood A-list self-aware enough to realise that Hollywood A-listers moralising about politics wasn’t likely to help the liberal cause, Zoe Saldana is by all accounts one of the most down to earth Beautiful People in the world of Beautiful People.

GETTY IMAGES28 of 32Léa Seydoux

It took 24 attempts, but with Spectre the world’s biggest movie franchise finally came up with a ‘Bond girl’ who convinced as anything more than a femme fatale. Not that playing Madeleine Swann particularly represents a career highlight for Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne – that should probably go to her turn in coming-of-age romantic drama Blue Is The Warmest Colour.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVESGETTY IMAGES29 of 32Françoise Hardy

From being a wide-eyed ingénue in the early 60s to embodying bohemian Parisian élan in the last 60s – and, latterly, getting really, really into astrology – Hardy has always been a magnetic presence within French culture. She released her 31st studio album this year too.

PICTORIAL PARADEGETTY IMAGES30 of 32Grace Kelly

Jimmy Stewart said the woman who became Princess Grace of Monaco had “a soft, warm light every time I saw her, and every time I saw her was a holiday of its own”, and even if you’ve only seen her in Rear Window or Dial M For Murder you can see exactly what he meant.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0

HULTON DEUTSCH31 of 32Anita Ekberg

Swedish actress Anita Ekberg will always be remembered as Sylvia Rank, the “dream woman” of Fellini’s masterpiece La Dolce Vita. The legendary role didn’t have a hugely positive impact on her career, however: “Things became a little bit boring for me after La Dolce Vita because every producer or director in Italy, England and America wanted me to recreate the same role,” she said of the period. “The movie star from America who comes over to Italy.”

GETTY IMAGES32 of 32Jennifer Lopez

The only reason Google invented its image search function was because Jennifer Lopez wore a particular Versace gown to the 2000 Grammys. According to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt: “At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J.Lo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOWhttps://ec4def2a9731f7add86656d48fa414e4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0https://d-2750994913234391634.ampproject.net/2109102127000/frame.html