Hamish Bowles: In the 2000s, a new face of beauty emerged that completely transformed the prevailing high fashion, body, and beauty paradigm.

Archival voices speaking about Gisele from the 2000s: "This Brazilian bombshell is leading the way in modeling with a unique vibrance." 

"She's worked with every major designer, been on the most important magazine covers and took home Model of the Year at the 1999 Vogue/VH1 VH1 fashion awards." 

"Her personality is irrepressible. Her look leaves a lasting impression. She's Gisele Bündchen." 

Hamish Bowles: Today, Gisele's name is synonymous with "supermodel." She dominated runways and magazine covers in the 2000s and expanded beyond the fashion world into the cultural landscape. Gisele changed the game for models and fashion at large, but her career began at a time when the industry wasn't quite ready for her arrival.

Welcome to In Vogue: the 2000s - a podcast about the decade that ushered in a new millennium and redefined boundaries in fashion and society. Alongside fashion leaders, cultural icons, and Vogue's editorial team, we'll dissect the decade's most impactful style moments and how they've shaped our culture today. 

Anna Wintour: I'm Anna Wintour. 

Hamish Bowles: And I'm your host, Hamish Bowles.

Gisele Bündchen: Modeling came into my life and it was always to me a business. The only aspiration that I had was to be a volleyball player. You know, I never wanted to become a model, it wasn't a dream of mine. It was, like, an opportunity showed up, I saw it as a way of helping my family, and I was like "Let me try out." 

Hamish Bowles: Gisele coming into the modeling scene in the late '90s meant that those booking jobs around her had an entirely different look from what she offered. Whereas most high fashion models at the time were delicately boned, embodying a look then dubbed "heroin chic," Gisele's athletic figure, embodied strength. Most casting directors at first didn't know what to do with her. 

Gisele Bündchen: Girls were very like, they were called like the waif models. Girls had piercings and tattoos. It wasn't really what I looked like, right? 

Nicole Phelps: The '90s were about waifs. Kate Moss being the prime example of the waifs but you had Amber Valletta, you had Shalom Harlow as well, 

Hamish Bowles: Here's Nicole Phelps, Vogue Runway's Global Director. 

Nicole Phelps: A whole class of Belgians, uh, who were very, very petite. And, uh, Gisele Bündchen was from Brazil, very, very tall, and she wasn't flat-chested like a lot of, uh, models were in the '90s. And she was sexy in what people would compare to an old fashioned pinup girl. This is obviously just compared to the waifs of the '90s. She was still very lean and very fit. 

Gisele Bündchen: Remember I'm a volleyball player. I'm like healthy. I'm like a nature girl and an athletic girl. It was like, I looked around me and like, I literally felt like an ET. I was like, "holy cow, like wow." 

Nicole Phelps: Fashion just had a very, very narrow definition of what beauty was pre-Gisele. And I mean that, you know, in the literal sense also, narrow meaning thin and skinny. She looks different to fashion's eye.

Hamish Bowles: Gisele as a young model trying to break into the industry abroad had a difficult time proving to casting directors that she belonged. 

Nicole Phelps: I think, you know, for a young model to have had a big season, you have to be in most of the cities. 

Gisele Bündchen: I went to London in the late '90s, like 97, 98, the shows used to be London first, then Milan, then Paris, last New York.

Hamish Bowles: The competition to book shows was cutthroat and designers and casting directors were still looking for models who embodied the waif aesthetic. 

Gisele Bündchen: Went to 42 castings. People wouldn't even look at my face, they would just look at my pictures and they would just say thank you very much. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing here because they don't even look at me. They just kept saying no, and no. 

Hamish Bowles: London in particular was an important hub for both models and designers. 

Nicole Phelps: The late '90s and the early 2000s was a period of incredible creativity in London. You had seen the arrival and explosion of designers like Galliano and Alexander McQueen and the mid '90s, and they were really ruling Paris. 

Gisele Bündchen: I went to the Alexander McQueen casting and put me on that skirt. They put me on these shoes that I could barely keep my knees straight, and he just said, "walk" right? And then I walked for him and then I got booked for the show. 

Hamish Bowles: The same features that made it difficult for Gisele to break into high fashion, the differences between her and the typical runway model of the time, were the very reasons that she was able to stand out once she was cast. She had people talking and they were interested in the new look Gisele had to offer. The 1998 Spring Summer Alexander McQueen show set her on the path to becoming one of the biggest models of the 2000s. 

Gisele Bündchen: Alexander McQueen was, I would say the person who gave me a chance, you know, when no one else would, he took a bet on me, so my career started on the runway, that was the first season. And then after that I was doing, you know, every show that you can imagine. 

Nicole Phelps: Suddenly you saw a wave of Brazilian models coming up through the ranks, uh, who were sort of built in, in her mold, curvier than the waifs that proceeded them.

Hamish Bowles: Photographed by Steven Meisel, Gisele's first American Vogue cover was July 1999's, "The Return of the Sexy Model." It featured the high impact story, "The Return of the Curve," photographed by Irving Penn and written by Phillip Weiss. It was Vogue's declaration: the end of the reign of the waif. It marked a significant shift of the times.

Gisele Bündchen: I couldn't think of a more important and meaningful image in my career because that was the shift that was like the heroin chic end of the era and it was the beginning of a new one. 

Hamish Bowles: He has Vogue editor, Nicole Phelps. 

Nicole Phelps: The irony of Gisele being put on the cover of a curve issue is that she was just as thin as the waifs that proceeded her, but she was tall, she had breasts, she had a derriere, and that made her different enough to signify this idea of, of curves. 

Laid Borelli-Persson: I think the, the idea of beauty and fashion's ideal of beauty, both in magazines and on the runway, was extremely restrictive in, in all ways, in terms of race, body type. 

Hamish Bowles: This is Laid Borelli-Persson, Vogue's Archive Editor. 

Laid Borelli-Persson: A very thin figure, almost flat, almost androgynous, was what we usually saw on the runway. And often the models were very young because their bodies were still... they were still growing. So Gisele, she was more womanly looking, I think. I mean, looking back, it seems really, really silly, but she, she just felt more comfortable in her skin, more mature and just complete in herself. I think a lot of the times we were faced with models that were in the process of becoming, but Gisele felt like she arrived sort of fully formed. A person and a personality comfortable in her skin. 

Gisele Bündchen: I think when you, when you were born in a country like Brazil where, you know the sun and the freedom of kind of feeling comfortable in your own skin, you know, and I think it's part of our culture to be, to bring in more, more that sensitivity and affection and, and, and really freedom in a way. Like being free to be authentically who we are.

Hamish Bowles: This is Vogue editor Tonne Goodman. 

Tonne Goodman: Well, I think that we went through a period of fragility and vulnerability to the model, you know, still very impressive, a lot of attitude, but definitely a fragility. You know, grunge came in and made a major impact, stopped everybody in their tracks, gave them a, an opportunity to view, uh, exposing themselves and presenting themselves in a different way via fashion. When, when Gisele came in, there was yet another opportunity. All of these girls had bodies, they were athletic, they could do anything. They were fearless. And I think that it, they kind of go hand in hand that, um, the editors were looking for clothes that would fit them the best and suit the story the best and take advantage of them the best. 

Hamish Bowles: The distribution of the July 1999 cover story, featuring Gisele, not only represented a shift in beauty standards at the time, it also ignited a new interest in Vogue by a brand new demographic of readers. 

Ivan Shaw: Gisele was not just for fashion aficionados. 

Hamish Bowles: This is Ivan Shaw, the Corporate Photography Director for Condé Nast. 

Ivan Shaw: You could put her on the newsstand and a lot of different people might be interested in that magazine. There was a theory going around during that time about adjacent audiences and sort of putting people on the covers that would not only bring in the Vogue reader, but bring other people who might be interested in for that person and those things. So, I think that she just had a very broad appeal. She was like, she could be a star and a celebrity, and she became a celebrity.

Hamish Bowles: The return of sexy model cover to Vogue was resonant Gisele on a personal level as well. 

Gisele Bündchen: They shot the cover when I was 18 and when it came out, I think I was 19. It was actually my birthday. I'll never forget because it was July. So I was like, "this is the biggest gift ever. I can't believe it I'm in the cover of American Vogue. When I started modeling, they were like, your nose is too big. Your eyes is too small and you're never going to be in the cover of a magazine. That was a woman from Elle magazine in Brazil when I was 14 and did casting, she told that to my face. So I still have the same nose and the same everything, my same eyes. I mean, I was just the same person. I always had that kind of trauma in my head that I wasn't worthy, that I was in pretty enough. So for me to be considered "The Return of the Curve," and this is what's going to be now, I felt like, oh my God, 

Hamish Bowles: Gisele's December 1999 Vogue cover solidified the strong energetic look that was now in Vogue.

Tonne Goodman: Now I had trepidation, I was, you know, this is my first cover. It was a big cover. It was Gisele. It was the Christmas cover. 

Hamish Bowles: As a brand new hire at Vogue Tonne had everything to prove in styling her first cover for Vogue, especially in working with the biggest model of the moment. 

Tonne Goodman: I had worked with her of course before at Harper's Bazaar, so I did know her. It was with Steven Meisel and Pat McGrath did the makeup, Jimmy Paul did the hair and she was wearing Dolce Gabbana that was totally covered with Swarovski crystals. So it was a very special, festive cover for December. We did this at Pier59 I believe, you know, perched on a platform so that you could get a clear view of the sky, but you can tell right from the photograph that Gisele is totally engaged. She's full of spirit. She's full of optimism and she's, um, not intimidating. She's with you all the way and it's charming. The familiarity of having her with me for my first cover was very, very reassuring. And, you know, it was, it was a bit of a test, I guess, and in the end it did go very well. I mean, it's exactly what Anna was looking for, I think for a December issue.

Anna Wintour: Yeah. I mean, I think where Gisele has always stood out, is that she was always Gisele. She always was a larger than life personality. There were girls that would appear in our pages or appear in advertising campaigns that were much more anonymous in the way that they appeared to the world, and Gisele there was always the hair, there was the amazing way that she carried clothes. 

Tonne Goodman: I think that her enthusiasm and her, you know, very, very authentic candid response to the life around her, what was happening from the hair and makeup application to trying on the clothes, to feeling out the location, all of those things were so vital coming from Gisele that she was an amazing partner to work with. And of course the beauty was, you know, goes without saying.

Hamish Bowles: Gisele's star was only just beginning to rise. Suddenly she was faced with more mainstream opportunities that some models might've felt were a conflict with a high fashion image. After the break hear how Gisele responded to a call to walk in one of the most notable fashion shows of the decade that was then just starting out.

In 1995, Victoria's Secret decided to stage a yearly fashion show. In the late '90s, Victoria's Secret started to hire supermodels for their ad campaigns and fashion shows to broaden their audience. Gisele was among the first of the newly-christened "angels" to walk the 1999 runway, which marked a major turning point for the brand and for fashion models dipping their toes into more commercial work.

Gisele Bündchen: When my agent called me and say, "Hey, Victoria's Secret want you to do a fashion show" I was like, "what? A lingerie?" Like I'm going to be walking around in lingerie? I was like, that's a little weird. So I was like, okay, I guess it's fine because every girl that I do shows with they're all in the shows. So I was like, okay, I'll I'll, I'll go. And that was the first fashion show I did for them. After that show, they wanted to give me a five-year contract. So my agent, told me, she says," look, if you take this catalog job, which is going to pay you a lot of money, you might never be a fashion model again," because you couldn't mix, you know, there was the girls who did Victoria's Secret and the girls did fashion. 

Nicole Phelps: When Gisele got this Victoria's Secret offer, the runways still were quite very narrowly, uh, populated by a very skinny waify types. A lot of the models who were walking those early Victoria's Secret runways were curvier than the typical high fashion runway model. And I think probably rightfully so. Gisele and her agent were worried that she would be associated with those curvy girls who weren't seen on the high fashion runways. Of course Marc Jacobs, Dolce and Gabbana, Tom Ford at Gucci, proved their worries wrong because everyone hired her to walk the high-fashion runways.

Gisele Bündchen: I thought about it for a second and I said, I didn't really care because if I never do fashion again, I'm going to come back home in five years with all this money, and I never had to work. I mean, it sounds fine by me cause you know, you can't work in fashion forever. There's like only five top girls make money. Nobody else makes money. So even though I was doing a million shows and stuff, it wasn't even like 5% what they were offering me to make in a year. That was the biggest contract ever, you know? 

Nicole Phelps: She made her millions from Victoria's Secret and on the high fashion runways, she redefined the look of models in the 2000s. Finally, the runways look more diverse and more inclusive. They still have long ways to go. But, uh, to look at runways today versus in the early 2000s, when Gisele was coming up is to see two very, very different ideas of beauty. 

Hamish Bowles: In refusing to be pinned down to one type of modeling, Gisele took a risk that paid off and pushed the boundaries for top models everywhere. Here's Nicole Phelps. 

Nicole Phelps: I think that Gisele actually, she's sort of the hinge that made the fashion industry pay attention to Victoria's Secret. I really think that a fashion show and a Victoria's Secret show were designed for two completely different audiences. I think that fashion fetishizes the female gaze and you know, a lot of people who are obsessed with fashion are not dressing for a love interest. I think the old fashioned way to say that would have been, you know, the opposite sex, but they are dressing for their peers and their competitors and women dress for women. Whereas Victoria's Secret show was designed by men and very much designed to satisfy and titillate the, the male gaze. But in any case, Gisele quickly became the, the star of the Victoria's Secret show. Simultaneously, she was turning into a fashion star and she, I think really was the first model who, who really was the biggest thing on, in both places. She was the biggest star for Victoria's Secret, but she was also a huge runway star, a huge high-fashion star. And the fact that she managed to do both of those things comes down to her star power. Comes down to just how much everybody was attracted to her and loved her as a, as a model.

Hamish Bowles: Gisele would go and to stake her claim on runways across the world. The 5'11 Brazilian bombshell quickly became famous for her signature runway walk. Here's Anna Wintour. 

Anna Wintour: I feel like there was always a joy to Gisele that you felt on the runway. 

Hamish Bowles: What made Gisele, Gisele, was that in front of the camera and on the runway she was herself.

Gisele Bündchen: And let me tell you, I wasn't thinking about slaying the runway and I wasn't thinking about finding a signature walk or anything. It was purely the only way I knew how to walk with those shoes. It was that there was a way of balancing myself and that's simply what it was. I was a size seven, you know, I'm 5'11, so as you can imagine, 5'11 with a seven size feet is not really it's, I'm super tall. You have to remember the shoes we wear on the runway are not the shoes you buy at the store. They're way bigger. They're like super tall. Like you can barely keep your knees straight. So, that was the way I found to walk. Like it was just the only way that was possible to walk in those shoes. 

Hamish Bowles: Her walk may have originated from the simple need of making it down the runway without toppling over, but it worked, paired with her signature charm and unmistakable charisma Gisele landed opportunities to open and close major shows in the 2000s.

Here's Vogue editor Nicole Phelps. 

Nicole Phelps: Everybody wanted Gisele to open their shows. Some models could go their whole career probably and never open or clos a show. It's usually the spot for the model who a designer thinks best evokes their aesthetic. Usually the first look and the last look are the best and the second best, depending on what order looks in the collection, or the strongest, the most directional looks. And so models really sort of fight and jockey for those spots. And you know, Gisele you know, name a show and she, and they could all be really different and she would be opening and closing all of them during her, her big years. She could walk on Marc Jacobs show, which was about downtown edgy, New York cool, or she could walk at Tom Ford's Gucci and be voluptuous and sexy, and on down the line. I think of Dolce and Gabbana as a label that she was sort of born to do and she opened a lot of Dolce and Gabbana shows in the 2000s and probably closed them too. 

Gisele Bündchen: I definitely probably open the show of every major designer everywhere. And I have to say it wasn't my preference because I felt like, oh my God, I'm the first one out there, so if I screw it up, like everybody's looking at me, I was like, I rather be like in the middle, but it was an honor. So I was very grateful that they put me in that position, but it was not very comfortable for me. 

Hamish Bowles: Conquering the pressure of the runway fortified Gisele's self-assurance that she belonged there. Even in the moments when she had doubts. 

Gisele Bündchen: I saw girls coming and going and I felt like, when is it going to be my turn? When is it going to be the end for me? Right? Because one season you saw a girl, the next season, you never saw them again. So it's a very volatile, like, you know, it's not like a long lasting career for most, I would say 99% of the people. 

Hamish Bowles: Here's Vogue editor Nicole Phelps again. 

Nicole Phelps: Models, careers are, are typically quite short. And what could end a model's career? That's just sort of like one word, fashion. You know, fashion is about change. Fashion is about evolution and the search for the new and designers hire casting directors who find new faces and the sort of search for a new face is, is ongoing and very, very strong. And so new faces replace old faces, and it's just sort of the way of the business. But again, she was really versatile and, uh, she was beloved by designers across the spectrum. And cut just as strong a figure at a Balenciaga show by Nicolas Ghesquière with very little hair and no makeup as she did at any of the more sort of, obviously Gisele-like collections. 

Anna Wintour: I think she, she really seemed to love what she was doing and often you had more introverted girls out there and you know, you sort of saw Gisele and you smile because she was herself having such a good time. 

Hamish Bowles: After conquering the runway Gisele looked beyond the flashing camera bulbs to discover new creative passions.

Gisele Bündchen: That's what's so exciting about life is taking chances in doing different things. You know, I was kinda missing a little bit the cold in the stomach that you get, you know, from, um, doing something new. 

Today Show Interviewer: The nerves? 

Gisele Bündchen: Yes. I love that. You know, just having a little cold in your stomach and just being excited about something, you know.

Hamish Bowles: It was Gisele's versatility and fun, loving nature that led her from the cover of Vogue magazine to cameos on the big screen. 

Actor in "Taxi": "On the ground now!" 

Gisele Bündchen [Acting]: "In this skirt? I don't think so." 

Emily Blunt [Acting]: "I have no idea why Miranda hired her." 

Gisele Bündchen [Acting]: "Me neither. The other day we were in the beauty department and she held up the Shu Uemura eyelash curler and said, 'what is this?'" 

Hamish Bowles: And to the late night talk show scene. 

Jay Leno: Please welcome Gisele ladies and gentlemen. 

David Letterman: Our next guest has been called the most beautiful woman in the world please welcome the very lovely Victoria's Secret supermodel, Gisele Bündchen. 

Conan O'Brien: My first guest is one of the most beautiful women in the world, straight from the pages of Victoria Secret, please welcome Gisele Bündchen. You went to Boston not too long ago. 

Gisele Bündchen: Is that your hometown? 

Conan O'Brien: Yeah and you went to a Red Sox game and you threw out the first pitch. 

Gisele Bündchen: Yes 

Conan O'Brien: What was that like? 

Gisele Bündchen: I did a home run with my throw. I had a hotdog before because they have amazing hot dogs in that, in that stadium I have to say. 

Conan O'Brien: They have good hotdogs.

Hamish Bowles: Gisele became more than a fashion icon, championing humanitarian efforts. 

Gisele Bündchen: It's like we don't have another earth. You know, this is, we are all sharing in the end of the day, we are all sharing the same air, you know, the same water, the same natural resources, the natural resources are finite. You know, you can't just keep taking, taking and thinking that is going to be here forever. You know, and obviously I want my children to grow up, not only for my children, but for the survival of human species quite frankly. 

Tonne Goodman: Actually in Costa Rica, she was starting to work on a skincare line that was completely organic. She embraced that totally. And I think part of that is coming from Brazil and being, you know, intrinsic with nature and the Brazilians have a relationship with nature I think that is very evident. But since then, she has been a huge champion of environmental causes. 

Gisele Bündchen: I always was, was this very simple girl from a small town that loves her family and loves nature. I mean, and that's kind of, you know, you can take the girl out of that, but you can never take that out of the girl. 

Inez Van Lamsweerde: I think Gisele just innately is a very, very good person that is genuinely curious about life and genuinely curious about the planet and its health and human beings health. 

Hamish Bowles: Fashion photographer Inez Van Lamsweerde has had a front row seat to Gisele's powerful spirit, both on and off camera. 

Inez Van Lamsweerde: I think Gisele's a kind of second generation supermodel and what she's given us with that is this idea of owning your sexuality, owning everything that comes with looking incredible and using it to actually change people's life. And I think that's one of her major strengths is that she's actually taken cue from someone like Christy Turlington who's also used her notoriety and platform to change the world and I think Gisele's of the same kind, except she had a much bigger platform just because she was so unapologetically sexy and vibrant. 

Hamish Bowles: As Gisele continued on her path to self fulfillment, she fell in love with NFL superstar, Tom Brady, creating a new celebrity power couple. 

Gisele Bündchen: My date was actually Tom and I was like, this is that's it I'm not going any more blind dates. And I figure let's meet for a drink, but you know, when I saw those kind eyes I literally fall in love, like right away. I was like, what? I mean, he was just so how sweet he is. 

Anna Wintour: She really took on the mantle of the supermodel and lived it and dressed it and married Tom Brady. I mean, she was a complete package. 

Nicole Phelps: I mean, I guess what you could say is that in the early 2000s when Gisele emerged as a very successful high fashion model, she looks different than your typical high fashion model of the years that proceeded her. And thanks to her success, maybe fashion started opening its eyes a little bit more and a little bit more and 15 years later finally there's room for the Ashley Grahams and Poloma Elsessers of the world. 

Hamish Bowles: Gisele Bündchen's rise to stardom forever changed the fashion world. She became bigger than the runway and larger than life. Her legacy continues to echo throughout the entertainment industry. 

Nicole Phelps: Gisele was so successful and so highly paid and so recognizable beyond the confines of the high fashion world that I think a lot of opportunities came to her, but she also had a, she had a little passions. And when a model gets that big, the opportunities to diversify and to endorse products start multiplying. And when that started happening for her, she, she chose yoga or she chose natural beauty at a time when those things were really just starting to catch on in the larger culture. And so she became sort of an avatar for a healthy yoga lifestyle and an avatar for clean beauty and women, like, look at her and want to be her, she was really successful at it. And those things, became more, more popular, thanks to her endorsement of them. And now you can go and watch videos about their clean diets and the personal chefs. And I mean, you can't really resist watching them because of course, everybody secretly would like to be Gisele.

Hamish Bowles: If you can't Gisele- catching a glimpse of her in the wild is an unforgettable vision. Here is Andrew Bolton. 

Andrew Bolton: I remember we went towards the Greek and Roman galleries and Gisele and Tom Brady just walked past. And they were more beautiful and more present than any of the Greek and Roman statues present there. It was just extraordinary seeing these two remarkable specimens of human beauty in the Greek and Roman galleries. It's just extraordinary. 

Hamish Bowles: That was Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. You'll hear more of him and more behind the scenes stories and history of the Met Gala in our next episode. Stay tuned.

In Vogue: the 2000s is presented by Anna Wintour, produced by Vogue in partnership with Pod People. Production support by Jacquelyn JamJoom, Tony Mantia, Rachael King, Matt Sav, Aimee Machado, Madison Lusby, Fredia Lucas, Maria McCoy Thompson, Morganne Fouse, Mariah Dennis, Daniel Burnelle, Gordon Bramli, Nicki Stein, Percia Verlin, Stefanie Bichara. Theme music composed by DJ Ghostdad. Vogue's editorial team is Laird Borelli-Persson, Mark Holgate, Nicole Phelps, and myself, Hamish Bowles. Special thanks to Vogue's creative editorial director. Mark Guiducci, VP of Digital Video Programming and Development Robert Semmer, VP of Audio, Julie Shen, and Director of Podcasts, Nico Steele. Please do subscribe to the podcast. It helps new listeners find the show. You can find additional information, incredible imagery, and episode references in the show notes or at Vogue.com/podcast. I'm your host Hamish Bowles. Until next week, In Vogue.