Here comes the son

Ronnie Wood and his son Jesse Wood. Photo / Getty Images

While the daughters of actors and rock stars have been filling gossip columns for years - think of Peaches Geldof, Lily Allen and Elizabeth Jagger - some of the sons of celebrities have been quietly building up lucrative modelling careers.

Jethro Lazenby Cave, the son of Australian singer Nick Cave; Max Irons, the son of actors Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack; Jesse Wood, son of Rolling Stone Ronnie; and Louis and Claude Simonon, sons of Clash bass player Paul Simonon, are just some of the male offspring of famous parents who have been making waves in the fashion world. "On the men's side of the industry now, people are looking at guys who have an interesting story," says Kat Hencken, head of the men's division at Independent Models, which represents one of Bryan Ferry's sons, Tara, as well as Jethro Cave.

"Even if these boys don't look like their parents, more often than not they appear to have inherited a certain cool factor."

Jethro Cave was one of the standout models at the autumn/winter menswear shows at the end of June in Paris and Milan. Cave has modelled for labels such as Balenciaga, Costume National and TopShop.

During the Comme des Garcons show in Paris, his photograph appeared on websites and in newspapers when he paid tribute to Michael Jackson by writing the words "RIP Smooth Criminal" on his arm and displaying it to the audience from the catwalk.

Hencken thinks Cave's success at the menswear shows is down to his personality as much as his pedigree: "Jethro has a great distinctive personality and is a very creative guy, which immediately comes across when you meet him."

Last season, adverts for UK high street giant Mango featured Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, 24-year-old son of the editor of French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld, and previously a model for jeanswear label Rock & Republic and for designer Marc Jacobs.

This autumn/winter, the new face of Mango menswear is Max Irons. Jesse Wood has just struck a very lucrative deal with Calvin Klein - thought to be seven figures - to model clothes and lifestyle products for the US designer.

Daughters of the rich and famous have been on the catwalks for a long time. Daisy Lowe, the daughter of Pearl Lowe and rock star Gavin Rossdale, Pixie Geldof, daughter of Bob, and Alice Dellal, whose parents are property tycoon Guy Dellal and his model wife Andrea, all made headlines recently after they moved from Select model agency to Next Model Management. Select said it had decided to axe its talent section, meaning the girls were dropped from its books.

The girls claimed it had been their choice to leave and they had not been axed. All three have starred in Agent Provocateur campaigns, while Geldof fronted adverts for New Look, and Lowe has posed for DKNY, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Pringle.