The Brazilian model is the only one to achieve this status, having the term created to describe her impact on the industry
Gisele Caroline Bündchen, one of the most iconic names in the modeling industry and the 2000s fashion scenario, is remembered for her signature catwalk, characteristic beauty, and extreme charisma. From Alexander McQueen, Victoria Secrets and Christian Dior to the opening act at the Rio 2016 Olympics, her career has been a phenomenon not seen in fashion since the Supermodel Era, in the early 90s, that contained names such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and plenty of others.
Über model: how the phenomenon started
To explain – or at least try to – her unprecedented impact on the fashion world, the New York Magazine, an American publication that comments about culture, politics and the New Yorker lifestyle, created a term for her achieved status: the Über model. The term comes from the German language, Gisele’s heritage, and “über” means “above”. In this case, above all others, as they have stated in the magazine.
To truly understand why her presence in the fashion world was so upstanding, it is important to take a look at the 90s fashion society. In the early days of the decade, the Heroin Chic aesthetic was the conventional beauty seen in fashion shows and magazine covers. Extremely skinny, pale, and serious models were the usual picture seen. They even resembled that they had just come from a party, with unbrushed hair and blurred makeup. Until the tall and tanned, somewhat curvaceous Brazilian model appeared on the scene.With her typical Brazilian attitude and charm, the fashion magazine covers were never the same.
A new era in fashion
The change of aesthetic not only conquered Gisele’s career, but also marked a new age in fashion, the Brazilian Bombshells’s era. With names like Bündchen, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrósio and Ana Beatriz Barros as the most remarkable models of this period, the fashion world experienced a true Brazilian invasion in the runaway. And it seems to have stayed.
Gisele officially retired in 2016, with her last modeling job being her most challenging one yet: crossing 105 meters of the Maracanã Stadium with 60 thousand people watching it live, and over 3 billion on television. In a silver dress, the über model walked to the sound of one of the most famous songs on the planet: The Girl From Ipanema, and made an entire country proud. Bündchen has returned to her career after her divorce with Tom Brady, in 2022. Since then, the über model has been seen again on shows and covers all around the world, so it’s safe to say Gisele does extreme justice to her nickname.
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The article above was edited by Gabriela Travizzanutto.
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