Gisele Model of the Decade

In VOGUE: The Archives

This episode explores the transformative career of Gisele Bündchen and her role in shifting fashion paradigms during the 2000s. It details h

Key takeaways

• Gisele Bündchen's arrival signaled the end of the 1990s 'heroine chic' era dominated by waif models like Kate Moss.
• The 1998 Alexander McQueen show served as a pivotal launchpad for her professional career.

Main topics

• Evolution of beauty standards
• The transition from waif models to athletic figures

Notable quotes

I never wanted to become a model. It wasn't a dream of mine.

Conclusion

The episode highlights how Gisele Bündchen's unique persona and physic

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:03) In the 2000s, a new face of beauty emerged that completely transformed the prevailing high fashion body and beauty paradigms. Speaker 6 (0:14) This Brazilian bombshell is leading the way in modeling with a unique vibrance. She's Speaker 5 (0:19) worked with every major designer, been on the most important magazine covers, and took home model of the year at the 1999 Vogue VH1 Fashion Awards. Her Speaker 6 (0:29) personality is irrepressible. Her look leaves a lasting impression. She's Gisele Bundchen. Speaker 2 (0:39) Today, Giselle'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. Giselle 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. Speaker 2 (1:02) 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. I'm Speaker 3 (1:23) Anna Wintour. And Speaker 2 (1:24) I'm your host, Hamish Bowles. Speaker 1 (1:30) 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 was like, let me try out. Speaker 2 (1:48) Giselle 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 heroine chic, Giselle's athletic figure embodied strength. Most casting directors at first didn't know what to do with her. Speaker 1 (2:08) 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? The Speaker 4 (2:15) 90s were about waifs. Kate Moss being the prime example of the waifs. But you had Amber Valletta, you had... Shalom Harlow as well. Speaker 2 (2:26) Here's Nicole Phelps, Vogue Runway's global director. A Speaker 4 (2:29) whole class of Belgians who were very, very petite. And Giselle Bündchen was from Brazil, very, very tall. And she wasn't flat chested like a lot of models were in the 90s. And she was sexy in what People would compare to an old-fashioned pin-up girl. This is obviously just compared to the waifs of the 90s. She was still very lean and very fit. Speaker 1 (3:04) 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 a needy. I was like, holy cow, like wow. Speaker 4 (3:14) Fashion just had a very, very narrow... definition of what beauty was pre-Giselle. And I mean that, you know, in the literal sense also, narrow meaning thin and skinny. She looked different to fashion's eye. Speaker 2 (3:36) Giselle, as a young model trying to break into the industry abroad, had a difficult time proving to casting directors that she belonged. Speaker 4 (3:44) I think, you know, for a young model to have had a big season, you have to be in most of the cities. I Speaker 1 (3:53) went to London in the late 90s, like 97, 98. The shows used to be London first, then Milan, then Paris, less New York. Speaker 2 (4:02) The competition to book shows was cutthroat. and designers and casting directors were still looking for models who embodied the waif aesthetic. Speaker 1 (4:22) London Speaker 2 (4:23) in particular was an important hub for both models and designers. Speaker 4 (4:39) Galliano and Alexander McQueen in the mid-90s, and they were really ruling Paris. I Speaker 1 (4:44) went to the Alexander McQueen casting and put me on the 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. Speaker 2 (4:59) The same features that made it difficult for Giselle 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 Giselle 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. Speaker 1 (5:23) Alexander McQueen was, I would say, the person who gave me a chance, you know, when no one else would. He took a bath in 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. Suddenly you saw a wave of Brazilian Speaker 4 (5:42) models coming up through the ranks who were sort of, you know, built in her mold, curvier than the waves that preceded them. Speaker 2 (5:55) Photographed by Stephen Mizell, Chazelle'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 Philip Weiss. It was Vogue's declaration, the end of the reign of the waif. It marked a significant shift of the times. Speaker 1 (6:18) I couldn't think of a more important and meaningful image in my career because that was the shift. That was like the heron chic end of the era. And it was the beginning of a new one. Speaker 2 (6:27) Here's Vogue editor Nicole Phelps. The Speaker 4 (6:29) irony of Giselle being put on the cover of a curve issue is that she was just as thin as the waifs that preceded her. But she was tall. She had. breasts. She had a derriere. And that made her different enough to signify this idea of curves. I Speaker 6 (6:50) think the idea of beauty and fashion's ideal of beauty, both in magazines and on the runway, was extremely restrictive in all ways, in terms of race, body type. Speaker 2 (7:04) This is Laird Borelli-Person, Vogue's archive editor. A Speaker 6 (7:08) 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 Giselle, she was more womanly looking, I think. I mean, looking back, it seems really, really silly, but 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 Giselle felt like she arrived sort of fully formed, a person and a personality comfortable in her skin. Speaker 1 (7:54) I think when you are born in a country like Brazil, it is the sun and the freedom of kind of feeling comfortable in your own skin. And I think it's part of our culture to be. to bring in more that sensitivity and affection and really freedom in a way, like being free to be authentically who we are. Speaker 2 (8:19) This is Vogue editor Toni Goodman. Speaker 5 (8:22) 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 an opportunity to view exposing themselves and presenting themselves in a different way via fashion. When Giselle came in, there was yet another opportunity. All of these girls had bodies. They were athletic. They could do anything. They were fearless. Speaker 5 (9:02) And I think that they kind of go hand in hand, that the editors were looking for clothes that would fit them the best and suit the story the best and take advantage