David Gandy: From Essex to Milan

As the face and body of Dolce & Gabbana's fragrance 'Light Blue' David Gandy was catapulted (courtesy of his little white trunks and a cracking six-pack) into the public consciousness.

One of the first male fashion models who can (bashfully) refer to himself as a genuine supermodel, Gandy is on a roll in 2011 with a coffee table book in his honour (in conjunction with those Dolce boys again), a contract as the face of Marks & Spencer's Collezione line, and a job as a casting director for Martini in their search to find the next face of the brand.

One does wonder why Gandy himself isn't the next face of Martini - a role which sees the winner of their worldwide search follow in the footsteps of George Clooney and Naomi Campbell.

"Good question" he replies, scratching his head before revealing that the chosen one will also receive 150,000 Euros prize money.

The Pride of Essex (Gandy was born and raised in Billericay) is far too busy anyway between numerous shoots for Dolce & Gabbana (Gandy is also the current star of their Gym range, for obvious reasons), promoting his spectacular book, running marathons and literally changing the shape of male modelling. He doesn't even have time to watch The Only Way is Essex for crying out loud!

To be fair, although Gandy is, in many ways, living the Essex dream, he's about as far away from stereotypical preening wannabes that populate the cast as Billericay is from Milan, although we must confess, the idea of bumping into Dave down at Sugar Hut does present a certain appeal….