By Alexandra Dawe, The Times

Many people think of Elle Macpherson as "The Body" - a supermodel, calendar girl and sometime actress.

But there's a hell of a brain in that body. Macpherson has built a multi-million-dollar licensing business that testifies to her grip on commerce, and her control over how her image is used.
Now 38 and pregnant with a second child to partner Arpad Busson, Macpherson is designing her next collection of Elle Macpherson Intimates lingerie. It's been a leading brand in Australia for 13 years, and was launched in Britain last year.

"I was up 21 per cent in the last quarter in Australia," she says. "We've had average growth of 10 per cent a year in the past five years, and have doubled our UK sales."

Elle Macpherson Intimates is part of the Bendon group, which was bought in March by New Zealand-based Pacific Retail for more than $30 million. The figures for Macpherson's range aren't publicly available, but it's Bendon's leading brand.

The lingerie and sportswear group approached her at the end of the 1980s. As well as lending her name, she took charge of designing, marketing and selling the underwear.

"I never wanted contracts with Revlon or Cover Girl. I always found it restricting to be the face of someone else's product," she says.

"If the product sucks there's nothing you can do about it - you have to get up there and sell it."

Macpherson says she has launched the range in the US yet "because I didn't want to franchise the business, and hand over control of my name or find my undies on discount. I didn't want to cheapen myself or the brand."

Nonetheless, she's set to launch a new, hush-hush product in the US next year.

Macpherson was born in Sydney, and brought up in an environment with a strong emphasis on education and hard work. Although she enrolled to study law, her mother thought modelling for a year would be a good way to see the world. And Macpherson has never looked back.

Nonetheless, she says "didn't feel very worthy modelling. To make myself feel credible I had to do something more - so I created businesses."

She started her career as the face of Tab cola in Australia, then went on to Sports Illustrated, doing a record four annual swimwear edition covers.

She soon realised there was money to be made in "extras", such as the calendars. So she started doing her own - as well as producing a TV documentary on the making of the calendars.

In 1995 she produced a fitness video for the US that became the highest-selling in the country that year.

"I always had a commercial appeal. It was less prestigious than fashion, but I enjoyed that people knew me," she says. "Being employed didn't give me the satisfaction I needed. I liked creating a market space for myself."