Supermodel Gisele Bundchen takes last stroll down catwalk

Gisele Bundchen bid adieu to the catwalk, strutting her stuff at an emotionally charged show in Sao Paulo that she said will be her last stroll down a runway in a 20-year career that has made her a fashion legend.

Fri, 17 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Jenny Barchfield, Sao Paulo

The 34-year-old Brazilian is married to NFL quarterback Tom Brady, with whom she has two children. She said she wants to spend more time with her family but also vowed to continue working in the industry.

As the world’s highest-paid model, according to a 2014 ranking by Forbes magazine, Bundchen is the face of Chanel, Carolina Herrera, and other top brands. She also designs a line of flip flops and lingerie.

Bundchen’s meteoric rise from a middle-class family in a small town to superstar is the stuff of modelling legend.

Gisele Bundchen wears a creation from the Colcci Summer collection at Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

On her Instagram account, Bundchen wrote: “After 20 years in the industry, it is a privilege to be doing my last fashion show by choice and yet still be working in other facets of the business.

“I am grateful that, at 14, I was given the opportunity to start this journey.”

Talking to the Globo television network, she compared her life to a cup of water filled to the brim.

“If your cup is full, how are you going to put more into it?” she said. “I’m emptying my cup so I can put more things into it.”

Bundchen made her final catwalk appearance during Sao Paulo Fashion Week for Colcci, the Brazilian streetwear label she has represented since 2005. She made three appearances, opening the show in an A-line dress in white lace and lacey, knee-high black boots and closing it in a sundress with a full skirt in ivory and salmon.

Gisele Bundchen’s mother Vania, father Valdir, and husband Tom Brady, watch the model’s last catwalk show.

For the final bow, a bevy of models emerged in jeans and T-shirts printed with Bundchen’s image, and Bundchen herself wove her way through the pack. Holding back tears, she flashed her trademark broad smile and a thumbs-up.

Bundchen was discovered by a modelling agency aged 14 and she came in second place in a nationwide modelling contest, before moving to New York.

By 20, she’d become a fashion sensation, her freckled face and flowing dirty blond locks gracing the cover of top magazines worldwide and her unique combination of legginess and curves causing a sensation on the runway . Her romantic life featured regularly in gossip magazines, as she was romantically linked to a series of A-listers, from surfer Kelly Slater to actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2009, she married New England Patriots star Brady.

Last year, she out-earned Brady, netting an estimated $47m on contracts.