Who: Actor with a conscience

Why: Recently voted ’sexiest man alive’, the man monikered Gorgeous George the world over is a sworn bachelor, which either means he understands women far too well, or not at all. What he does know is how to make even sensible women go wobbly at the knees, and he has a startlingly cross-generational appeal. He’s been linked to a bevy of leading ladies but has no intention of settling down. Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer famously bet him $10,000 that he would be a dad by 40 – on losing they paid up but Clooney bet double or nothing he wouldn’t be a dad by 50 either. Recently he’s moved away from blockbusters, to issue-raising films like Syriana, produced by his own company, something which only makes him more appealing.
He says: When asked if he would go into politics he joked, ‘Me? Run for office? No, I’ve slept with too many women, done too many drugs.’

Who: Father of the pill

Why: His work on reproductive hormones led to the development of the pill in 1960, which helped usher in the sexual revolution, giving women control over their lives. Today over 100 million women rely on the pill for contraception – it has proved to be one of the most socially significant advances of the century.

He says: ‘A liberated, independent woman should be in charge of her own fertility.’

Who: Reproduction pioneer

Why: Not only for his cutting-edge treatment of infertility, but also for being a rather lone voice in not criticising women who choose to wait until their 30s to have children. His work is characterised by refusing to judge who may be a fit or unfit parent. ‘I won’t play God,’ he said from the start, adamantly offering help to all who were medically suitable, including the unmarried, lesbians or any women regarded as ‘unworthy’ of motherhood.

He says: ‘What we haven’t done as a society is give women equality. We have pretended to, but we haven’t made it any easier for them. In some ways we have made it more difficult. We encourage people to go to university and join a profession but when they get to 38 and have already contributed and paid taxes, society turns around and says you are too old for NHS [IVF] treatment. We have to rethink how we work. I don’t think we should be putting time limits on it.’

Jilly Cooper on Winston: ‘ Before I adopted my gorgeous Felix and Emily, I went to see him because I couldn’t have babies which was simply awful. He said that he could help me, but I adopted. He was such a kind man.’

Who: Former president of the United States

Why: He is beginning to do great work with Aids in Africa, with the Clinton Foundation HIV/Aids Initiative. The Clinton Global Initiative is working on numerous women’s empowerment projects, including microfinance and village banking, education and health. He is also right behind his wife in her bid for presidency, as he damn well should be. A Bill Clinton appearance still generates a hearty level of hysteria in the US, which just goes to show how some thoughtfully chosen good works can rehabilitate a philanderer.

He says: ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman.’ Hillary on Bill: ‘The most difficult decisions I have made in my life were to stay married to Bill and to run for the Senate from New York.’

Who: Owner of Arcadia fashion group responsible for Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Wallis, among others

Why: Green effectively controls high-street fashion (over 2,000 outlets) – and thus, women’s desire for, and access to, clothing. He’s the king of ‘fast fashion’, pioneering a turnover of stock which, for example, means Topshop receives new stock 2-3 times a week, and which has driven his female clientele into a heightened consumer frenzy. The ‘Kate Moss for Topshop’ range launches later this spring. He’s alleged to earn £500,000 a day. suffer disproportionately from poverty. Awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

He says: If you are born into a poor family, if you are a woman you have seen the worst of poverty. In a cultural way, in the families in Bangladesh, it’s the woman who eats last. So if you have a scarcity in the family … she misses out. Everything comes in the raw deal for her. So, given a chance, she works hard to make a change to improve her life.’

He says: ‘I’m in the retail business, not the circus business.’

Who: CEO Marks & Spencer

Why: Under Rose’s influence, M&S’s floundering fortunes were spectacularly reversed in a short period of time. The Rose effect is most marked in M&S’s reworked approach to womenswear – redirecting the design team towards a more trend-led, catwalk-inspired aesthetic, introducing a policy of rapid turnover on individual pieces. Its share of the womenswear market overall in the UK (there are 508 stores) has subsequently risen to over 10 per cent. An ad campaign, featuring models Twiggy, Erin O’Connor, Laura Bailey and Elizabeth Jagger, cranked up the brand’s profile and shares hit an all-time high in November 2006 with a 32 per cent rise in half-year profits. In the run-up to Christmas, a cashmere sweater was sold every 30 seconds.

He says: ‘I want to please every woman, every time.’

Who: Leader of the opposition

Why: It’s all about public perception where Cameron’s concerned. Kids plus bike plus non-trophy alpha wife equals the ultimate in modern man. ‘Opinion polls show that he is winning growing support from women, and I think he understands that, on the whole, they want more than just macho knock-about politics,’ says Patience Wheatcroft, editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

He says: ‘Often, if there’s a problem, I’ll deal with it because Sam [his wife] goes into an office, and I can be quite flexible…’

8. Pedro Almodóvar, 57

Who: Spanish film-maker

Why: His films are passionate tributes to women – the female characters (celebrated by Almodóvar for their most unconventionally attractive features) are emotional and troubled, while transvestites, mothers and sympathetic daughters are all lovingly filtered through his female-identified lens. He says: ‘Women have more secrets, more capacity to surprise. They are more shameless. They tell their girlfriends even what they do in bed with their husbands.’ Penélope Cruz on Almodóvar: ‘Pedro loves women, he is very curious about the way we think, the way we feel. He finds us complicated and he likes that complication.’

9. Mario Testino, 52

Who: Photographer

Why: Because his images make his female subjects look glossy, glamorous and beautiful – as opposed to the infinitely less desirable options of edgy, quirky, waifish, or ‘real’. From Diana (glowing in a black poloneck ) to Elizabeth Hurley ( pink bikini and fur coat), Testino creates images that have strength in their unadulterated sexiness.

He says: ‘I act by instinct. I do, and then I think.’

Who: Economist, founder of Grameen Bank

Why: Grameen Bank lends small amounts of money to Bangladesh’s poor, enabling them to become entrepreneurs, pioneering the practise of micro-credit lending. More than 96 per cent of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty. Awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. He says: If you are born into a poor family, if you are a woman you have seen the worst of poverty. In a cultural way, in the families in Bangladesh, it’s the woman who eats last. So if you have a scarcity in the family … she misses out. Everything comes in the raw deal for her. So, given a chance, she works hard to make a change to improve her life.’

Who: Actor, James Bond

Why: Does Craig understand women? Who knows – that’s not why he’s on this list. Craig’s relevant because last year, he buffed up, stripped off and posed for the Casino Royale poster shot; and that image has contributed massively to a new understanding of women. The photograph is, let’s face it, gratuitous. It launched a million female fantasies; it re-awakened the crush instinct in women who had given up on fancying film stars.

He says: ‘We expect female actresses to go naked so why not men? I’d do a full frontal scene. I’m not shy.’ Judi Dench on Craig: ‘It’s an absolute monster! Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. How uncouth of me.’

Who: A former leader of the Liberal party. Now Lord Steel of Aikwood

Why: For introducing the abortion bill to parliament in 1966 when he was one of the youngest MPs in the House and being a fundamental player in ridding Britain of backstreet terminations. The 1967 Abortion Act made abortion legal in the UK up to 28 weeks gestation. Before 1967 there were as many as 100,000 illegal abortions carried out every year and women regularly died as a result of these botched operations.

He says: ‘I was motivated by revulsion at the damage caused by criminal and self-induced abortion.’

Who: Author

Why: Read High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, and About a Boy and howl with the laughter of painful recognition. He writes for women that want to understand men. As most of us spend our lives trying to do just that, he wins himself a place in the inner circle.

He says: ‘I never mind the accusations of domesticity, as long as people recognise that all of us, even the luckiest, will live lives in which we have our hearts broken, suffer the loss of loved ones, worry ourselves half to death about our kids.’

Who: HIV/Aids campaigner

Why: For his endless work supporting women and children affected by the African HIV/Aids pandemic. Lewis has held numerous posts at the UN, including deputy executive director of Unicef and secretarygeneral’s special envoy for HIV/ Aids in Africa, while also working for the International Aids vaccine initiative and the WHO. He also runs his own foundation.

He says: ‘Every 10 minutes, another child died, and every 10 minutes, therefore, there was this inconsolable cry of anguish from the mother of the child who’d died. And I was so stunned by it all – it was so merciless, it was so continuous.’ CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Lewis: ‘He lobbies tirelessly to get women the right drugs and refuses to accept what he calls the "grotesque double standard" that denies women in poor countries the medicine that can prevent the transmission of HIV to their newborns, while it is now virtually unheard of for mothers in our rich Western countries to give birth to HIV-infected babies.’

Who: Chancellor of the Exchequer

Why: According to author Kate Mosse, ‘it’s hard to say what politicians really think, and what they think they are supposed to think or say, but Gordon Brown’s action on early years childcare, and on debt relief for Africa, suggests he – or someone close to him – understands the nature of the common bond that still exists between women of different types, backgrounds and ages. The Observer’s political editor, Gaby Hinsliff, lists ‘childcare tax credits, taking VAT off tampons, having more women ministers than any other department in the early years, and generally being a closet feminist even before he got married’, as reasons for his inclusion on this list.

He says: ‘I’m a father. That’s what matters most. Nothing matters more.’ Polly Toynbee on Brown: ‘With the minimum wage, he lifted 1.5m women out of pay slavery. Many were earning £2 an hour: now it is set at £5.35 – not yet a living wage, but a great improvement.’

Who: Editor, Daily Mail

Why: Like a bossy headmistress, the Daily Mail tells us (again and again) that we drink too much, work too much and love too much, but its feature-led formula and Femail pages mean that the newspaper has a higher percentage of women readers than any other national. Its editor Paul Dacre viscerally understands what his readers – including a whopping million Middle England women a day – care about, whether it’s Goldie Hawn’s faulty fashion sense, Sadie Frost’s sex life or Doreen Lawrence’s outrage at the murder of her son.

He says: ‘I don’t think you can have a newspaper editor who’s not married with children…they wouldn’t understand the human condition.’ They say: ‘He deals with everything at the level of emotion.’

Who: Playwright and author

Why: Inspired by his own relationship with is mother (or ‘mam’ as he always called her), Bennett’s award-winning monologues give a voice to that all-too-easily stereotyped, frequently ignored species – the elderly woman. In his hands, women of a certain age have rich interior lives that go far beyond clichéd musings on the menopause. At the same time he’s given some of our best character actresses, including Thora Hird, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith and Patricia Routledge the funniest and most apposite lines of their careers.

He says: ‘I’m reluctant to be enrolled in the ranks of gay martyrdom, reluctant, if the truth be told, to be enrolled in any ranks whatsoever.’ Julie Walters on a sex scene with Bennett: ‘He’d go out of the room while I got undressed and I’d shout: "Hold on Alan! I’m just trying to put my cap in." You could feel him blushing through the walls …’

Who: Pioneer of foetal medicine

Why: Based at King’s College Hospital in London, pregnancy expert Nicolaides leads pioneering surgery carried out on babies in the womb. His centre continues to treat around 10,000 women a year.

He says: ‘The foetal medicine unit is my life and the patients are my family. So, when I see a patient crying or I give people bad news I put my arms around them and many times I end up crying with them.’

Who: Biologist, joint director general of Cancer Research UK

Why: Described by the Sun as ‘the David Beckham of science’, Nurse’s experiments on yeast led to the discovery of the gene that controls cell division, inspiring researchers to predict that most cancers will soon be treatable. Together with fellow Brit Tim Hunt and American Leland Hartwell, he was awarded a Nobel Prize for radically altering our understanding of the way the disease operates.

He says: ‘Over the past five years, we’ve seen absolutely clear evidence that if you do a, b and c, it doesn’t cure, but it means about 3,000 more women survive each year. That’s been wonderful.’

Who: Film director

Why: For sympathetically portraying the plight of impoverished single mothers in his legendary Play for Today Cathy Come Home. On 16 November 1966, 12 million television viewers watched Cathy, played by the actress Carol White, have her children forcibly taken away from her by the social services. The gritty, documentary-style footage opened up debate and threw light on all-too-real traumas.

He says: ‘It was a huge thing for all of us. It made a massive difference.’

Who: Theatre director, writer

Why: He has a kindness and sensitivity in his work which was particularly highlighted in his film Iris when Judi Dench played the Alzheimer’s-ridden writer Iris Murdoch. Eyre’s own mother had it.

He says: ‘You’re trying to protect something terribly gentle: the flick of an eyelash or the raising of an eyebrow.’ Observer theatre critic Susannah Clapp says: ‘The way he puts women onstage is thoughtful, and he writes so well about women – his wife, daughter and mother.’

Who: Writer

Why: Not surprisingly, his recurring themes – the human cost of love and war – attracts a strong female fanbase. Perhaps because of his own mother’s breakdown, Faulks has a gift for getting inside a woman’s head.

He says: ‘I don’t find it at all difficult to talk about sex, love, emotion. You know, girly things.’ Novelist Julie Myerson on Faulks: ‘On Green Dolphin Street is one of the most heart-shakingly ac curate depictions of how it feels to be female and in love that I’ve ever read.’

Who: Shoe designer

Why: For over 30 years, Blahnik has fanned the flames of female shoe lust. Manolos have been so regularly referenced through the glossier elements of popular culture, that they’ve become clichés. Marge Simpson wore a pair of Manolo mules in an episode of The Simpsons, Carrie Bradshaw wore Manolos so constantly through Sex and the City that they’ve subsequently been credited as playing a supporting role in the TV series.

He says: ‘Half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 per cent are total madness and the rest are breadand- butter designs.’ Madonna on Manolo: ‘His shoes are better than sex. What’s more, they last longer.’

Who: Fashion designer

Why: Mouret has an effortless grasp on what women truly want from frocks. Unlike many other male designers, he manages to straddle the line between chic and glamorous; his sensibility (epitomised by last year’s runaway fashion hit, the Galaxy dress as worn by Carol Vorderman to Cameron Diaz) demands no compromise in the name of either style or sexiness. Now Mouret’s in the process of democratising his aesthetic -last year he designed dresses for Gap.

He says: ‘I truly love women, all women. By the time a woman puts on one of my dresses, we’re already into the second part of our relationship – I’ve been thinking about her while I’ve been designing, and I know how I want her to look and feel.’

25. John Galliano, 47

Who: Fashion designer

Why: Galliano is fashion’s great romantic but with a darker side – a maverick charm that thrills women. His designs – tiny nipped-in waists, tailored suits, crafted to flatter the female form – are unveiled in spectacular form: a Galliano show is the hot ticket of the Paris season even for the most jaded of Devil Wears Prada-style editors.

He says: ‘Women are women, and hooray for that. The problem is with men. They’ve shrouded and hidden women to hide their incompetence.’
26. Dr Stewart Adams, 82

Who: Research chemist

Why: Because he discovered the wonder drug RD 13621, better known as ibuprofen and the most effective remedy for hangovers and period pain known to womankind. As a research scientist for Boots in the 1950s, he was actually trying to find a drug to reduce inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis but stumbled upon a pain-relief chemical compound more potent than aspirin, with fewer sideeffects. He initially tested it on himself and wrote up his report from his living room in Nottingham. The drug was patented in 1961 but Adams, a famously self-effacing chap, didn’t make a profit. ‘I think, in fact, we were supposed to be given a pound for signing away our signatures, but we didn’t even get that.’

He says: ‘Inventing it was a bit hit and miss.’

Who: Novelist, screenwriter

Why: Definitely a novelist in touch with his female side. In his latest book, Restless, he writes in the first person as a single mother observing her erratic mother. All his books are dedicated to his wife.

He says: ‘The happiness of women when a girlfriend gets a man is not an emotion shared by the other half of the sexual divide.’

Who: Creative director, Mulberry

Why: Because Stuart Vevers is the man responsible for making women obsess over extremely expensive handbags; the man, furthermore, responsible for increasing our expenditure on handbags by some £2.5 billion over the course of the last four years. Under Vevers’ auspices, Mulberry ‘name’ bags (the Roxy, the Emmy and, this season, the Belgrave) changed the landscape of the fashion industry, inspiring others to re-focus on newly christened, wildly successful handbag ranges. Marc Jacobs’ Stam and Chloé’s Paddington are both post-Vevers creations.

He says: ‘I was really surprised when this craze took off a few years ago. There have always been successful handbags but British women didn’t seem to have that desire for high-end bags before. Maybe it has something to do with the way women dress, in that now they dress much more casually so a designer bag has become a way to show that you are fashionable.’

Who: Creator of Coronation Street

Why: Because Corrie has a long and noble tradition of delivering some of the greatest, strongest, and most comically inspired female characters ever written. Think about multi-layered, brilliantly constructed, endlessly hilarious creations like Vera Duckworth, Betty Turpin, Bet Lynch, Janice Battersby, Tracy Barlow and Cilla Brown.

He says: ‘A fascinating freemasonry, a volume of unwritten rules … Coronation Street sets out to explore these values and in doing so, to entertain.’

Who: Senior vice president of industrial design at Apple

Why: As the principal designer of the iMac, the iPod and most recently the iPhone, this Essex boy is the man who introduced technology to a female audience. While he did not make his designs explicitly female – let’s be fair, quite a few men lust after his exquisite white objets – Ive was the first person to stop them being so masculine. It began in 1999 when he launched the jewel-coloured, first-generation range of iMacs, precursor to the beautiful iBook laptop – a move which transformed Apple’s fortunes, but also served to pique female interest in technology. Eight years on, women are now driving the technology market; we spend three times as much on gadgetry as on cosmetics, and according to research, teen girls (aka the future of consuming) are more likely to use mobile phones, digital cameras and MP3 players, than their male equivalents.

He says: ‘Every time I start anew, I’m terrified. I’m terrified of being crap.’

Who: High-profile divorce lawyer

Why: Because every wealthy, unhappily married woman in Britain should have him on her speed dial. Nicknamed ‘Mr Payout’ he masterminded record-breaking divorce deals for the footballer Ray Parlour’s former wife, Karen, and Melissa Miller, who was married for less than three years to her multimillionaire ex.

He says: ‘ All marriages, whatever their length and whatever the roles of the spouses, are to be treated as a partnership of equals.’

Who: Nutritionist, author of The G.I. Diet

Why: While some diets encourage women to starve themselves into their jeans, Gallop’s GI (Glycaemic Index) diet allows you to lose weight without going hungry. Former president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Gallop developed a diet of fibrous foods that are digested slowly, meaning you’re less likely to snack. And unlike the Atkins Diet, your breath won’t stink.

He says: ‘I couldn’t understand why losing weight was so difficult, and I felt there had to be a way to slim down without having to feel hungry every moment of the day.’

Who: Country singer and songwriter

Why: He was a struggling song writer when, in 1961, he wrote the song ‘Crazy’ and offered it to Patsy Cline. In four short and deceptively simple verses he produced the number-one jukebox hit of all time and summed up the universal agony of being hopelessly in love with a two-timing bastard.

He says: ‘I knew/You’d love me as long as you wanted/And then someday/You’d leave me for somebody new.’

Who: Editor, Heat magazine

Why: Frith brilliantly harnessed the women of Britain’s (then) nascent interest in low-ranking celebrities, nurturing it into a full-blown obsession. The legend runs that when research groups were showed a prototype of Heat, they responded: why would anyone want to look at loads of pictures of celebs? It transpired that, actually, everyone did; Heat’s circulation spiralled upwards to around the (staggering) half a million mark, Frith’s magazine became a cultural benchmark (often condemned for dumbing the nation down). Last year, Frith kick-started the size zero debate with a series of cover images of very thin female celebrities – issues which pushed Heat’s circulation up further.

He says: ‘It’s all about the readers and what they want. Nothing else matters.’

Who: Britain’s greatest living portrait painter

Why: Because he adores painting women of all classes, shapes and sizes, from the Queen through to Kate Moss, Jerry Hall to DSS benefits supervisor Sue ‘Big Sue’ Tilly. In lusciously thick riffs of paint he portrays us as fat, saggy and veined and yet still somehow glorious. Over his career he’s explored women’s bodies in the same way as his grandfather, Sigmund, explored our minds.

He says: ‘There is something about a person being naked in front of me that invokes consideration. You could even call it chivalry on my part.’

Who: Screenwriter

Why: Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the moment Colin Firth, in Andrew Davies’ legendary 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, stepped out of the lake at Pemberley wearing a wet frilly shirt, a nation of women swooned and decided that maybe, just maybe, true love did exist after all.

He says: ‘These authors would have made their sex scenes much clearer, had they known they were going to be read in 2003.’

Who: Pianist, composer, hit-maker

Why: He’s written some of the greatest love songs in the world.

He says: ‘I remember sitting next to a woman, on a flight a few years ago. She’d had a couple of drinks and she said, "Can I tell you something?" I said, "Sure." She said, "I can’t make out properly unless I’m listening to your music." So that’s been my contribution.’ Aretha Franklin on Burt: ‘The moment I wake up/ Before I put on my make-up…’

Who: Restaurateur

Why: Nobu is the godfather of girl food. Low-fat, high-protein, lowcarb, terribly fashionable, elegant, ostensibly elitist. Nobu’s restaurants and Nobu’s food are everything women want from a culinary experience.

He says: ‘Sashimi or black cod?’ Sex and the City girls say: Miranda: ‘Today is the baby nurse’s last day. From now on you’ll have to book me a year in advance.’ Carrie: ‘Wow, you’re, like, Nobu!’

Who: Singer, songwriter

Why: Because he’s been writing songs that women love for 25 years.

He says: ‘I will be your father figure, I have had enough of crime, I will be the one who loves you, until the end of time.’ We say: ‘You put the boom boom into my heart, you send my soul sky high when your loving starts.’

Who: Celebrity chef

Why: For taking on schools and the government and fighting for healthier meals for kids, and for making it cool for men to be seen cooking.

He says: ‘On the outside I look like a geezer. You gotta be a bloke, aintcha? But if you talk to people that have worked with me, they might say I’m a bit effeminate in the things I get sticky about.’ Sarah Beeny on Jamie: ‘He’s released a generation of women from the kitchen.’

Who: Television producer and creator of Sex and the City

Why: Despite having a fully formed penis, Starr created a show about sex from a female point of view. Glossy, smart and juicy, Sex and the City was a compelling post-feminist exploration of female independence. Characters (including Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie) chose who they slept with, what they spent their money on, and how to trip around New York on five-inch heels.

He says: ‘ There’s something about being a guy, and having a perspective on women’s lives that maybe women don’t have themselves.’

Who: Hairdresser

Why: The saviour of frizzy-haired women (and there are a lot of us). In 1990, he launched Frizz-Ease, the first hair serum to smooth frizzy hair- and netted himself over $185 million.

He says: ‘It was the early Seventies and Vidal Sassoon had just revolutionised hairdressing from the era of backcombing and roller setting to wash and blow-dry. Nobody wanted a style. But I was developing all these styling techniques and I could see that was the future.’

Who: Gynaecologist/ obstetrician

Why: Caused quite a stir in the Seventies when he championed a holistic and natural approach to birth. He allowed women to have a say in how they gave birth (you want a birthing pool? Step this way). Now at St John and St Elizabeth hospital, London, he helps the rich and famous push (his yummy mummies include Heather Mills McCartney, Jerry Hall, Cate Blanchett and Elle MacPherson).

He says: ‘There are very few shoulds when it comes to having babies.’ Penny Lancaster, Rod Stewart’s girlfriend, on Yehudi: ‘He helped deliver Alastair. He recognised my fears and homed in on my strengths, I felt confident and trusted in his every word.’

Who: Chelsea’s football coach (at the time of going to press)

Why: For giving women an entrée to football. Partly on account of his cashmere-clad silver foxiness, partly on account of his ultra-arrogant, crowd-taunting theatricals. Mourinho’s a one-man soap opera on the sidelines.

He says: ‘For me the most important thing in my life is love. If you are not in love with your wife you have to divorce. If you are not in love with your kids you are not a human being so you have to kill yourself. If you are not in love with your job you must change your job.’

Who: Co-founder of Myspace.com

Why: Myspace revolutionised the way relationships evolved. Suddenly, it became OK to meet online. From the safety of their desks, women were able to communicate with strangers, and build friendships with like-minded folk.

He says: ‘ It’s a new way to socialise that is rapidly changing and become more mainstream every day.’

Who: Lawyer and manager

Why: Because he spun twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen into a global brand phenomenon. Under his guidance, two B-list TV child stars became a multi-billion dollar business. Mary-Kate and Ashley proved the catalyst for an entire new female demographic – the pre-teen market. Last year, the Olsen sisters brought Thorne out of his stake in the business, but his legacy, the tweenage girl, endures.

He says: ‘Does it scare me that [Mary-Kate and Ashley] are so young, and yet they have so much power? Yeah. Me and them, I think.’

Who: Shoe designer

Why: Louboutin started out designing shoes for dancers, hence the theatrical influence and signature red soles. Renée Zellweger, Gwen Stefani, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie can’t all be wrong.

He says: ‘It’s the combination of shoes and the naked body that interests me.’

Who: US psychologist, reputed to be the world’s authority on marriage

Why: No woman should say ‘I do’ without first consulting this m at hematician-cum-marital expert. At his ‘Love Lab’ in Seattle, Gottman has devoted his career to analysing what makes couples tick. By observing literally thousands of lovers he can predict better than your best mates whether your relationship will last – he claims his tests are 92 per cent accurate.

He says: ‘You can tell from just looking at how a couple talk about their day what is going to happen to the relationship in the future.’

Who: Canadian doctor and dermatologist who invented Botox

Why: Botox is one of the most effective anti-ageing treatments available. It was Carruthers’ wife, Jean, who discovered the potential of Botulinum A Extoxin in 1987 when treating her opthalmology patients and her husband helped develop it for cosmetic use.

He says: ‘Botox will reset the position of the eyebrows, so that you can have a more positive look.’ Kathy Phillips, beauty director, Condé Nast on Carruthers: ‘Botox is the perfect beauty treatment in a world that demands instant gratification as you really can see results within minutes. No wonder women are obsessed.’

Who: Dermatologist

Why: In 1989, Murad discovered the anti-ageing properties of Alpha Hydroxy Acids for skin.

He says: ‘I have devoted my life to making beautiful, healthy skin attainable for everyone.’ Kathy Phillips on Murad: ‘He developed his own [Derm] brand long before anyone else – and out of a genuine desire to help his patients and not primarily as a money-making exercise.’

Via Guardian Unlimited