Gisele Bündchen

Gisele Caroline Bündchen (born July 20, 1980) is a Brazilian model and occasional actress. 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 2006 and $35 million in 2007 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 over 500 magazine covers.

Family and early life

Bündchen was born in the Brazilian town of Três de Maio and grew up in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, to 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, speaks Portuguese as her native language and English as a second language.

She is from Southern Brazil, a region whose population is largely composed of Brazilians of German descent. Bündchen is of German ancestry from both sides of her family, which is integrated in Brazilian society for many generations: her great-great-grandparents immigrated to Brazil from Germany.

Modeling career

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 a Big Mac 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.

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 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 2006 and in broader market publications such as Time, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek and 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, and with 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.

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 August 26, 2008, the New York Daily News, in a list, named Bündchen the fourth-most-powerful person in the fashion world.

Endorsements and earnings

Since her debut, Bündchen has been the face of a variety of advertising campaigns including several seasons of Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Mervyn's, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Versace, Céline (brand), Givenchy, Bvlgari, Lanvin, Guerlain, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Earl Jean, Zara, Chloé, Michael Kors, 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 another multi-million dollar deal, this time 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 May 1, 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 past 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%.

Other ventures

Charity activities

Bündchen lends her support and image to a number of charities and humanitarian causes, such as the I am African campaign, in which she painted her face to protest against the lack of attention given to Africa's HIV/AIDS victims. Without receiving payment, Bündchen was, in 2006, the face of American Express Red Card, an initiative launched by U2 front man Bono and Bobby Shriver to send a percentage of monies earned from the financial transactions of this credit card to Africa's HIV/AIDS victims.

In 2009, she appeared in more than 30 covers of the international issues of Elle magazines wearing (Product) Red clothing and posing with products from companies who support the same cause. (RED)’s primary objective is to engage the private sector in increasing assistance for the Global Fund, to help defeat AIDS in Africa. Companies whose products take on the mark contribute a percentage of the sales or portion of the profits from that product to the Global Fund to finance AIDS programs in Africa, with special attention on the health of women and children.

Bündchen designed a limited necklace edition for Harper’s Bazaar, crafted by jewelers Gumuchian Fils. These necklaces were sold to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital which specializes in cancer treatment. She served as the spokesperson and campaign model for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer. Bündchen already gave a São Paulo Fashion Week's payment check for Zero Hunger (in Portuguese: Fome Zero), a Brazilian-government program introduced by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003.

She was, in 2009, one of the celebrities to sign up for the auction fundraiser of celebrities autographed iPods to raise cash for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, organised by Tonic.com., alongside former U.S.A.'s president Bill Clinton, Cher, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Ellen DeGeneres and others. The money is for the Music Rising institution which aims to recover and invest in the musical culture of the destroyed areas.

She promotes protecting the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Amazon Rainforest water sources, donating to this cause a percentage of profits from her line of sandals named Ipanema Gisele Bündchen. Also, Bündchen helps projects such as Nascentes do Brasil, ISA, Y Ikatu Xingu and De Olho nos Mananciais.

Bündchen and Grendene, the company that produces and disseminates her line of sandals, also joined the Florestas do Futuro project for the reforestation of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The project was created by the NGO named SOS Atlantic Forest in 2004, new forest, named for Gisele Bündchen Sementes, started with 25,500 shoots of 100 different species, enough to revitalize an area of 15 hectares.

Acting career

In 2004, Bündchen made a venture into film industry, starring as the leader of the bank robbers, Vanessa, in the 2004 remake Taxi. In 2006, she played a minor part in The Devil Wears Prada.

Personal life

Relationships

On Thursday, February 26, 2009 Bündchen married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in a small Catholic ceremony in Los Angeles. On April 5, 2009 the couple remarried in Costa Rica with Brady's son, John Edward Thomas Moynahan, present. For the ceremony, Gisele wore a dress and veil designed by famed fashion designer John Galliano. Bündchen and Brady had been dating since late 2006. Before marrying him, she dated actor Leonardo DiCaprio and professional surfer Kelly Slater.

Song tribute

As an homage to Bündchen, Brazilian singer and songwriter Gabriel Guerra, along with musician Pedro Cezar, wrote the song Tributo a Gisele (Tribute to Gisele in English), which is currently the theme of the model's official website. In January 2008, Bündchen met Gabriel Guerra at Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro.

One reason to love New York

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 lives there.

Nude photographs

On April 11, 2008, a black-and-white photo of Bündchen, shot by Irving Penn, was auctioned for US$193,000 (£96,000). The picture was one of dozens from the collection of Gert Elfering that were sold at Christie's International in New York. In all, the auction tallied US$4.27 million and included pictures of Brigitte Bardot, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Carla Bruni. Bündchen's picture reached the highest price in comparison with the others. Bardot was the second with US$181,000 (£90,000).

In 2009 Gisele featured, on artistic nude picture, the cover of the work retrospective book of Australian photographer Russel James.

Image inspiration

A result of research was publicized in February 2008 by The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) to reveal how world celebrity images, which overwhelm popular media, influence people's choices and decisions to undergo plastic surgery. The question asked was "What influences do celebrities have on the decisions patients make?". The survey was sent to more than 20,000 plastic surgeons in 84 countries. Gisele Bündchen, Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Pamela Anderson, Sophia Loren, Brad Pitt and George Clooney were the most frequently mentioned celebrities. Gisele won the abdomen and hair categories and took second place in the breasts category.

Controversies

PETA anti-fur target

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 stage, four women jumped onto 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 that the protest was "unwarranted" because the fashion show featured only faux fur. After the incident, the producers decided to stop the music and redid Bündchen's segment once the protesters were removed.

"I'm the biggest animal lover in the world", she said backstage after the show. "I was just doing my job as a model. I don't even wear fur. They just want attention." Despite her comments that PETA had acted 'inappropriately', Bündchen later announced that "it was a bad decision on my part," explaining that she no longer "wears any fur."

The Euro preference rumour

When Bündchen signed a contract in August 2007 to represent Pantene hair products in Brazil for Procter & Gamble, it was reported that the model demanded payment in euros, according to Veja, the biggest weekly Brazilian magazine. She was also rumoured by Veja to be paid in euros for the last deal reached with the Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana to promote the fragrance The One. The American dollar's devaluation in international markets was the trigger for the rumour, and Bündchen was written about in many financial publications, a rarity for someone in the fashion world.

Her sister and manager Patrícia Bündchen denied these contract details on her official web site after much criticism.

Vogue America cover with LeBron James

The cover of the April 2008 Vogue, shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz and featuring Bündchen with LeBron James, was the first time a black man had been on the cover. Criticism was immediate from many quarters for what was perceived as a racist depiction of James, putting the basketball superstar and the much smaller model in a pose reminiscent of King Kong carrying off Fay Wray.