Friday, August 29, 2008

Biography for Gisele Bündchen / Gisele Caroline


Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen (born July 20, 1980) is a Brazilian model. According to Forbes, she is the highest-paid model in the world and also the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment world, having earned $33 million in 2007 and $35 million in 2008 alone, adding to her estimated $150 million fortune. She is also listed on Guinness Book of World Records as the world's richest supermodel. Bündchen has been the face of more than 20 brands internationally, and has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers.

It was in 1994 when Gisele Bundchen was discovered at age 14 in a Brazilian fashion mall, and now she is "the" most famous face in the business. Since then, Gisele has graced the covers of countless magazines as any other model in the history, including Rolling Stone, Time, Forbes, Newsweek and all the fashion top magazines such as Vogue, W, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, i-D, The Face, and many others. Gisele also has multi-million dollars deals with some of the world's biggest companies. Her contract with Victoria's Secret is the biggest in the fashion industry, and she also has deals with Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Joop!, Otto, Lanvin, Guerlain, Nivea, DSquared, St. John, Colcci, Vivo, Vogue Eyewear and Grendene. Her own line of shoes, called "Ipanema Gisele Bundchen", have sold more than 100 million pairs since 2001.

Birth Name
Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen

Nickname
Gise
The Body
The Midas Queen
The Hurricane Gisele
La Bundchen

In 1993, a then-13-year-old Bündchen joined a modeling course with her sisters Patrícia and Gabriela at her mother's insistence. The following year, Bündchen went to São Paulo in a school excursion to give them an opportunity to walk in a big city. In a shopping mall, Bündchen was discovered by a modeling agency. 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.

Her debut on the cover of the July 1999 issue of Vogue magazine, and the accompanying editorial entitled, "The Return of the Sexy Model" is widely viewed as marking the end of the fashion's "heroin chic" era. She graced the cover again in November and December of that year. She won the VH1/Vogue Model of the Year for 1999, and a January 2000 cover gave her the rare honor of three consecutive Vogue covers. In 2000, she was the fourth model in history to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, when she was named "the most beautiful girl in the world". Bündchen has been on the covers of many top fashion magazines including W, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Allure, international editions of Vogue, as well as style and lifestyle publications such as i-D, The Face, Arena, Citizen K, Flair, GQ, Esquire and Marie Claire. She has also been featured in the Pirelli calendar 2001 and 2006 as well as in broader market publications such as Time, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek, Veja, totaling more than 500 magazine covers throughout the world.

Bündchen consistently works with acclaimed photographers such as Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, Mert and Marcus, Rankin, Annie Leibovitz, Karl Lagerfeld, Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle, Mario Sorrenti and Patrick Demarchelier, among others, and renowned directors such as Jean Baptiste Mondino and Bruno Aveillan.

Claudia Schiffer said: "Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more." and reckoned that Gisele Bündchen was the only one close to earning the supermodel title.

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