Gisele Caroline Bündchen (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒiˈzɛli ˈbĩtʃẽ]; born 20 July 1980) is a Brazilian model, occasional film actress and goodwill ambassador for the UN Environment Programme.
In the late 1990s, Bündchen became one of the first in a wave of Brazilian models to find success.In 1999, Vogue magazine dubbed her "The Return of the Sexy Model" and she was credited with ending the "heroin chic" era of modeling.
Bündchen was one of Victoria's Secret Angels from 2000 until 2006. Since 2004, she has been the highest-paid model in the world and the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment industry with an estimated $150 million fortune.Models Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell have argued that Bündchen is the only true remaining "supermodel" and according to Forbes she may become the first ever billionaire supermodel.
As an occasional actress, she had supporting roles in Taxi (2004) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006).
From 2000 to 2005, Bündchen was in a much-publicized relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio.She married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2009.
Family and early life
Bündchen was born in the Brazilian town of Três de Maio and grew up in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul. She is of German-Brazilian heritage from both her parents, Vânia Nonnenmacher, a bank clerk pensioner, and Valdir 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.Bündchen is Roman Catholic and speaks Portuguese as her native language. She also speaks Spanish and English.
“ I was born in Horizontina, a town in the back-country of (Brazilian) state Rio Grande do Sul. The town was once mainly colonized by Germans. In the school which I attended, learning German was actually obligatory from third grade on. But being out of touch with the language for such a long time, I unfortunately forgot it. I belong to the sixth generation of my family in Brazil. ”
Originally, Bündchen 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).
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 on a school excursion to give them an opportunity to walk in a big city. In a shopping mall, while eating at McDonald's with her friends, 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.
Modeling career
Gisele Bündchen pioneered the "horse walk" – a stomping movement created when a model picks her knees up high and kicks her feet out in front.
She appeared on the cover of Vogue in July, November and December 1999. She won the VH1/Vogue Model of the Year for 1999, and a January 2000 cover gave her three consecutive Vogue covers and in December 2009 she appeared alongside of her husband Tom Brady on the cover of book The World in Vogue – People, Parties, Places.In 2000, she became the fourth model to appear on the cover of the music magazine Rolling Stone, 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 been featured both in the Pirelli Calendar 2001 and 2006and in broader market publications such as TIME, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek and Veja, more than 600 magazine covers throughout the world.
Bündchen consistently works with acclaimed photographers such as Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, and Patrick Demarchelier, and with renowned directors such as Jean Baptiste Mondino and Bruno Aveillan.
Photographed by Steven Meisel, she was presented on the September 2004 cover of American Vogue as one of the "Models of the Moment".In the December 2005 issue, New York magazine chose and publicized a list of 123 reasons to love New York City with reason number 43 being that Gisele Bündchen lived there.
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.
Naomi Campbell said: "Models need to earn their stripes – I just think the term is used a little too loosely. Kate Moss is obviously a supermodel but, after Gisele, I don’t think there’s been one."
On 26 August 2008, the New York Daily News, in a list, named Bündchen the fourth-most-powerful person in the fashion world.
On 12 May 2009, The Independent, called her the biggest star in fashion history.
She is ranked No.1 as the Top Model Icon of All Time at models.com.She is also No.3 at the Money Girls list and The Sexiest Models.In 2011, CEOWORLD Magazine ranked her among their Top Accomplished Women Entertainers.
Endorsements and earnings
Bündchen has been the face of a variety of advertising campaigns including several seasons of Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Victoria's Secret.She has appeared in advertisements for Nivea lotion and is the face of several Brazilian brands including Vivo, Multiplan (Shopping Malls), Colcci, Credicard (Citibank) and Volkswagen do Brasil.After C&A Brazil hired Bündchen as a spokesmodel and began airing television commercials, sales increased by 30%.
In May 2006, Bündchen signed a multi-million dollar deal with American giant Apple Inc.. She starred in an advertising campaign to promote the new Macintosh line through the Get a Mac advertisements.Also in 2006, Bündchen became the new face of Swiss luxury watchmaker Ebel.
She has her own line of sandals with footwear company Grendene called Ipanema Gisele Bündchen. Forbes puts her 53rd on their list of the most powerful celebrities of 2007 because of the international success of her shoe line, making the brand Ipanema the most sold Brazilian flip-flop in the world, surpassing the legendary Havaianas.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.
On 1 May 2007, it was announced that Bündchen had ended her contract with Victoria's Secret.
In July 2007, having earned an estimated total of $33 million in the previous 12 months, Forbes magazine named her the world's top-earning model in the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels.
An American economist named Fred Fuld developed a stock index to measure the profit performance improvement of companies represented by Bündchen compared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to Fuld, the Gisele Bündchen Stock Index was up 15% between May and July 2007, substantially surpassing the Dow Jones Industrial Average which was up just 8.2%.
During 2009–2010, she was reportedly the top earning supermodel, earning an estimated $25 million.
Edward Razek, chief marketing officer of Limited Brands, who worked with Bündchen during her Victoria's Secret career says, "She's an international icon who can also move product—from shampoo to couture."
On May Forbes ranked her, for the fifth consecutive time, as the world's top-earning model with an estimated $45 million over the past 12 months (2010–2011). Her earnings climbed $20 million over the previous year, thanks to an economic boom in her homeland of Brazil coupled with a 10% surge in the value of the Brazilian real against the dollar.
Read more: Wikipedia.org
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gisele_B%C3%BCndchen
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