Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher B?ndchen is a Brazilian supermodel and occasional actress.
Gisele B?ndchen was born in Tr?s de Maio, near Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She is the daughter of Valdir and V?nia B?ndchen, both of German descent, along with five sisters: Raquel, Graziela, Patr?cia, Gabriela and Rafaela. Patricia and Gisele are fraternal twins. B?ndchen has mentioned several times that at least one of her sisters has attempted a modeling career as well. Pictures of her family reveal they share the same statuesque bone structures, and long, wavy brown hair.
While in school, B?ndchen was so thin that her friends used to call her "Ol?via Palito" (Portuguese for Olive Oyl, Popeye's skinny friend), and Saracura (a kind of long-legged bird). She liked to play volleyball, and had even thought of becoming a professional for Brazilian team, Sogipa.
An often told story about the "discovery" of B?ndchen is when, as a schoolgirl, she went to a McDonalds and was eating a Big Mac when an agent discovered the bronze-haired beauty. In an interview, B?ndchen remarked that she at first did not know what a model was, thinking it was something perhaps akin to being a hooker.
In 1993, B?ndchen, 13 years old, joined the Dilson Stein's mannequin course to correct her posture, with her sisters Patr?cia and Gabriela, because her mother insisted. The course was for teenagers who wanted to be models.
In May 1994, Stein took 50 girls to S?o Paulo to give them a chance to walk in a big city and to let them be evaluated by Brazilian Elite agents. On August 20, 1993 B?ndchen was playing volleyball for Sogipa, in Porto Alegre. Elite "kidnapped" her and took her to a contest. She came between the five finalists. Then, she went to S?o 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, B?ndchen came in fourth. While she was easily noticeable for her beauty, she still endured physical criticism.
As a teen, B?ndchen moved to New York City to begin her runway debut at Fashion Week. She was so nervous she decided to get a blue star tattoo on her wrist. The tattoo is very noticeable on the model, but there seems to be no attempt to cover it up with make-up in photo shoots or runway shows. After her debut in NYC, she was immediately embraced by the fashion world.
B?ndchen has done ads and runway shows for various fashion houses including Valentino, Zara, Bvlgari, Tommy Hilfiger, Chlo?, Celine, Versace, Christian Dior, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, Dolce & Gabbana, and Louis Vuitton. She has also appeared on the covers of Allure, Marie Claire, Vogue,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", since she seems to have marked the end of a trend of "waif" models such as Kate Moss.
