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Gisele Bundchen was born on July 20, 1980
in Horizontina, Rio Grande de Sul, Brazil. She was raised in Horizontina,
a small town of less then 20,000 people located in the southern
part of Brazil, with her five
sisters, Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Patricia, and Rafaela who are
all also natural phenomenons. As a school girl,
she was taunted with the nickname Olive Oil, the waif thin girl
friend of Popeye the Sailor in cartoons.
The road to becoming today's most requested model
came as mere chance for Gisele. Although Gisele had set her sights
on a career as a professional volleyball player, she was discovered
while on a school trip to Sao Paulo when she was only 14 years old.
While grabbing a Big Mac in a shopping mall, she was seen by a modeling
agent who approached her and asked if she had any interest in becoming
a model. Despite her father's disapproval of the career choice,
he allowed her to move to Sao Paulo and she entered the Elite Look
Modeling Competition, and came fourth. Two years later she found
herself in New York.
The arrival of Gisele on the international fashion
scene, in 1996, was seen by many in the industry as the beginning
of a new move away from the look-of-the-moment trend of harsh, edgy
images into a softer, sexier phase. Actually, VOGUE credited Gisele's
work in the fashion industry as 'The Return of the Sexy Model'.
She's been hailed by ROLLING STONE Magazine as
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD and confirmed her status in
December 1999 as the most wanted face in fashion, when she was named
VOGUE-VH1's MODEL OF THE YEAR. Gisele was asked to be guest fashion
editor for an issue of English VOGUE and co-hosted, with Cuba Gooding
Jr., the Vogue/VH1 Awards the year following her victory.
In late 1999 to early 2000 Gisele split with long-term
love, model Scott Barnhill, for fellow countryman (and multi-billionaire)
Joao Paulo Diniz. She then moved on, and was dating Leonardo DiCaprio
for several years, they were living together in Los Angeles. She
has said that she will not marry Leo until he stops partying and
going to strip clubs so often.
In September 2000, Gisele signed a multi-year contract
with lingerie powerhouse VICTORIA'S SECRET. As a result, the Brazilian
beauty will appear in several of their lingerie, beauty and hosiery
campaigns for television and print, as well as in their point-of-sale
materials. According to rumors that circulated amongst the fashion
crowd during New York Fashion Week, Gisele will receive a cool 20
million US dollars for the job.
Gisele has been on the cover of almost every major
fashion publication and has been photographed by every major fashion
photographer. She's been featured in major advertising campaigns
such as RALPH LAUREN, CELINE, GIVENCHY, VERSACE and GIORGIO ARMANI.
In the summer of 2001, the famed jewellery house, BULGARI, chose
Gisele as the face to launch their new LUCEA line.
In celebration of Valentine's Day 2003, Platinum
Guild Int'l kicked off their second year of its "Women With
Heart" celebrity pendant design program and charity auction.
Gisele personally designed an original platinum heart pendant necklace
which was auctioned off for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Gisele is in the process of producing a clothing
line in, and exclusively for, her native land of Brazil.
She currently lives in Los Angeles, an apartment
in New York and a house out in the country in up-state New York.
Gisele Bundchen has had her belly-button pierced and has a tattoo
of a star on the inside of her left wrist. It is nice to see that
Gisele, albeit a young, rich and famous model, still maintains her
naturalness and a down-to-earth personality.
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