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Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen
(born July 20, 1980) is a Brazilian supermodel who is
constantly acclaimed as the most famous and the
highest-paid model in the world. Since her introduction
onto the fashion scene in the '90s she has appeared in
countless billboards and magazine covers, as well as
numerous TV and print ads.
Bundchen is currently the face of more than 20 brands
from different countries such as United States, Russia,
Brazil, Italy, France, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, Korea,
Germany and Switzerland. According to Forbes, she made
$33 million on 2006, adding to her estimated $150
million fortune. She currently holds Guinness World
Records as the "world's richest supermodel".
Family and early life: Gisele was born in the
Brazilian town of Três de Maio in Horizontina, Rio
Grande do Sul, to Vânia Nonnenmacher Bündchen, a bank
clerk pensioner and Valdir Reinoldo Bündchen, a
university teacher and writer. She has five sisters -
Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela and her fraternal
twin Patrícia (Gisele's junior by five minutes).
Gisele Bündchen was raised in Southern Brazil, a
Brazilian region largely settled by German immigrants;
both her parents are of German descent (her
great-great-grandparents immigrated to Brazil in the
late 19th century). Bündchen's parents are fluent in
German, although Gisele does not speak it, Portuguese
being her native language.
Modeling career: Originally, Gisele wanted to be
a professional volleyball player and considered playing
for the Brazilian team, Sogipa. While in school, Bündchen
was so thin that her friends used to call her "Olívia
Palito" (Portuguese for Olive Oyl, Popeye's skinny
girlfriend), and "Saracura" (a type of
Brazilian shorebird). An oft-told story of Bündchen's
"discovery" is that she was scouted by a
modeling agent at age fourteen while eating a Big Mac at
a local McDonald's.
Prior to that, in 1993, a then-14-year-old Bündchen
joined a modeling course with her sisters Patrícia and
Gabriela at her mother's insistence. The course,
instructed by Dilson Stein, was designed for teenagers
aspiring to become models. The following year, Stein
took Bündchen, along with some other girls to São
Paulo to give them an opportunity to walk in a big city
and to be evaluated by Brazilian Elite agents. She was
subsequently selected for a national contest, Elite Look
of the Year, in which she placed second – Claudia
Menezes, from Bahia, took first place. Bündchen placed
fourth in the world contest, held in Ibiza, Spain. In
1996, Bündchen moved to New York City to begin her
modeling career, debuting at Fashion Week.
Gisele's debut on the cover the July 1999 edition of
Vogue Magazine, and the accompanying editorial entitled,
"The Return of the Curve" is widely viewed as
marking the end of the fashion's "heroin chic"
era. She would grace the cover again in November and
December on her way to winning the VH1/Vogue Model of
the Year for 1999, and a January 2000 cover shot would
give her the rare honor of three consecutive Vogue
covers in a row. In 2000 she was the fourth model in
history to grace the cover of Rolling Stone, when she
was named "the most beautiful girl in the
world".
Since her debut, she has been the face of a variety of
advertising campaigns including several seasons of
Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana,
Missoni, Versace, Céline, Givenchy, Bvlgari, Lanvin,
Guerlain, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Earl Jean, Zara, Chloé,
Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, and Victoria's Secret. Bündchen
is also the face of several Brazilian brands like Vivo,
Brazil's leading mobile company, Multiplan, Colcci and
Credicard. After C&A Brazil hired her and started
their television commercials, sales increased by 30%.
In May of 2006, Bündchen signed another multi-million
dollar deal, this time with American giant Apple
Computer. She starred in an advertising campaign to
promote the new Macintosh line through the Get a Mac
advertisements.
She has her own line of sandals with shoes company
Grendene, called Ipanema Gisele Bündchen. Forbes puts
her on 53rd of their list of the most powerful
celebrities of 2007 due to the success of her popular
shoe line, Ipanema. Custom Ipanema flip-flops sell for
as much as $230 a pair. She is also the owner of a hotel
in the south of Brazil, the Palladium Executive.
Bündchen consistently works with photographers, like
Nino Munoz, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Nick Knight,
Mert and Marcus, Rankin, Annie Leibovitz, Karl
Lagerfeld, Peter Lindbergh, Mario Sorrenti and Patrick
Demarchelier, among others.
Bündchen has also been on the covers of most of the
main fashion magazines around the globe like, W,
Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Allure and many international
editions of Vogue, as well as style and lifestyle
publications like i-D, The Face, Arena, Citizen K,
Flair, GQ, Esquire and Marie Claire. She has also been
featured in broader market publications such as Time,
Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek, Veja.
On May 1st, 2007 it was announced that Bundchen had
ended her contract with Victoria's Secret. The New York
Post's Page Six had reported that Bundchen left
Victoria's Secret because it wouldn't raise her $5
million-a-year salary.
Film career: Regarding a film career, Bündchen
has said "I think it would be interesting,"
but counters "I'm young and I like what I do for
now and I understand that everything in life happens for
the moment."
She made her movie debut in the 2004 comedy Taxi,
alongside Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon. She also made
a high-profile appearance in the 2006 comedy The Devil
Wears Prada.
Also in 2006, she appeared in one of Apple Incs new
"Get a Mac" advertisements. In it, she is the
personification of a home movie created using an Apple
Mac Computer.
Gisele is rumored to be the front runner for the role of
Vittoria Vetra in the upcoming Angels & Demons
adaptation, the prequel to the 2006 International smash
The Da Vinci Code.
Personal life: When she is not working or
traveling the world, Bündchen enjoys spending time with
her family, friends and her dog Vida (meaning
"life" in Portuguese), a Yorkshire Terrier.
Her first boyfriend in the United States was model Scott
Barnhill, but they dated for only six months. After
Scott she was also linked with hotel tycoon Vikram
Chatwal and Josh Hartnett, but she never confirmed the
rumors about these two.
Bündchen's most famous romance was her on/off
relationship with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. They met in
2000 during a fashion party in Los Angeles. The next
day, DiCaprio sent flowers to Bündchen and invited her
to dinner, but she refused. A month later he finally had
the opportunity to take her on a date, but their first
public appearance did not occur until 2005 at the 77th
Annual Academy Awards. In November 2005, they broke up.
Bündchen began dating surfer Kelly Slater soon after
her breakup with DiCaprio, but the two broke up by July
2006. Bündchen was briefly linked to actor Chris Evans
of Fantastic Four fame. She started to date New England
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady before Christmas of 2006.
The couple were first seen in public in
NYC leaving Bündchen's apartment in late January and in
February they were widely photographed during a trip in
Europe. She has been rumored to be pregnant with Tom
Brady's baby An interview on the Spanish television show
Corazon de Primavera, Bundchen finally put an end to all
of the speculation stating that, she is not pregnant.
Controversy, John Casablancas: Bündchen's rise
to fame has not come without controversy. Like Heidi
Klum and several other models, she moved from her
original agency Elite Model Management to IMG. John
Casablancas, head of Elite, accused Bündchen of being a
stoner who slept her way to the top, though he has now
stated that he was misquoted. Casablancas also filed a
$15 million lawsuit against her.
PETA: In 2002, during the taping of the annual
Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Bündchen was the target
of a protest made by four members of People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals because she was signed to
be the new face of Blackglama, a trademark of a fur
farming cooperative.
When Bündchen was on the stage, four
women jumped into the runway holding posters that read
"Gisele: Fur Scum" and included the logo for
PETA. Bündchen tried to ignore them while several
security guards detained the protesters. Bündchen told
CNN the protest was "unwarranted."
"I'm the biggest animal lover in the world,"
she said backstage after the show. "I was just
doing my job. I'm a model. I don't even wear fur. They
just want attention."
The fashion show featured only faux fur. After the
incident, the producers decided to stop the music and
redid Bündchen's segment after the protesters were
removed. |
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