Gisele Caroline Bundchen, often simply
known as Gisele, was born on July 20, 1980 in Três
de Maio, near Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, in
southern Brazil.
She is the daughter of Valdir and Vânia Bündchen, both of German descent. Gisele has three sisters: Raquel, Graziela and Rafaela. Rafaela and Gisele are twins.
While
in school, Gisele was so thin that her friends
used to call her "Olívia Palito"
(Portuguese for Olive gisele caroline bundchenOyl,
Popeye's skinny friend), "Somaliana"
(person from Somalia) and Saracura (kind of bird
with long legs). She liked to play volleyball,
and had even thought of becoming a professional
for Brazilian team Sogipa.
In 1993, Gisele, 13 years old,
joined the Dilson Stein's mannequin course to
correct her posture, with her sisters Patrícia
and Gabriela, because her mother insisted. The
course was for teenagers who wanted to be a model.
In May 1994, Stein took 50 girls to São
Paulo to give them a chance to walk in a big city
and to let them be evaluated by Brazilian Elite
bookers (agents). On August 20, 1993 Gisele was
playing volleyball for Sogipa, in Porto Alegre.
Elite "kidnapped" her and took her to
a contest. Gisele came between the five finalists.
Then, she went to São Paulo. She came in
second in the national Elite Look of the Year
contest - Claudia Menezes, from Bahia, was the
one in the first place. In the world contest,
in Ibiza, Gisele came in fourth. In another version,
she would have come in sixth.
Gisele has done
ads and runway shows for various fashion houses
including Valentino, Zara, Bvlgari, Tommy Hilfiger,
Chloe, Celine, Versace, Christian Dior, Michael
Kors, Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, and Dolce
& Gabbana. She has also appeared on the covers
of Allure, Marie Claire, Vogue USA, Vogue Italia,
Harper’s Bazaar, Arena, and Rolling Stone.
Her curvaceous figure prompted Vogue to refer
to her body of work as the "return of the
sexy model"
