As the awards season kicks off, designers will stop at nothing to get an A-list hot property to endorse their creations.

Awards show arrivals nowadays are often lengthy, tightly-produced commercials, with some of today’s biggest stars acting as walking billboards for the highest bidder. And that ad space doesn’t come cheap.

An actress may be paid £100,000 to wear the gown of a particular designer, and many more will have been paid over £50,000 to wear their diamonds.

For the designer, it’s a bargain. Their creations will be seen by billions globally on television and the internet, and on the thousands of magazine pages devoted to award-show coverage.

Keira Knightley recently signed a reported £500,000 deal to be the face of Chanel perfumes. It should come as no surprise then that the Atonement star has been wearing Chanel clothing to virtually all press appearances.

Despite her denials that there is a ‘fashion’ deal in place, Keira arrived at the Venice Film Festival in a navy and white nautical Chanel dress and then chose a pink frothy Chanel confection for the party later that night. She wore Chanel on Jonathan Ross’s TV show and again at the Toronto Film Festival.

And despite wearing up-and-coming designer Rodarte to the film’s London premiere, the actress made sure she was still representing — she wore Chanel jewellery.

And there’s no shame in this. By inking this deal, Keira joins an elite club. The current cast of celebrity endorsers includes some of filmdom’s most lauded talent. Oscar winner Charlize Theron has a perfume contract with Dior and while she denies her agreement compels her to wear his clothes, she almost always does.

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