Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, center, celebrates at the end of the show from the Colcci Summer collection at Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel who has lit up catwalks around the world for 20 years, is retiring from the runway. — AP photos SUPERMODEL GISELE BUNDCHEN MAKES TEARY LAST CATWALK TURN

here were tears, hugs, and a standing ovation as supermodel Gisele Bundchen strode the Tcatwalk one last time on her home turf in Brazil on Wednesday. Bundchen, the world’s top- earning model, made her final sashay down the runway at Sao Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW), the same event where she made her debut 20 years ago. She opened and closed the show for Brazilian label Colcci, bringing full circle a runway career that launched her to stardom. In the first row were fami- ly and friends she invited including her parents and American football star husband Tom Brady. Bundchen, 34, appeared calm and smiled. The whole show took about 20 minutes. But when a crowd of men and women models strode out in jeans and white T-shirts with her image on them, she stayed composed for a bit before bursting into tears. Bundchen hugged friends and waved to well- wishers. The Brazilian bombshell announced last month she was retiring from runway modeling, saying she wanted to spend more time with husband New England Patriots quarterback Brady, and their two children, Benjamin and Vivian. She also told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo: “My body she’s at the height of her powers. It’s an intelligent 1999, she became the face of what Vogue maga- tells me if what I do is worth it, and it asked to stop. I decision,” said Dilson Stein, the talent scout who zine, splashing her across its cover, called “the respect my body, it’s a privilege to be able to stop.” discovered Bundchen in 1994 during a modeling return of the sexy model.” Stein remembers being She will continue modeling off the runway and pro- workshop in the small city of Horizontina, in her wowed by the willowy girl of German descent, with moting her lingerie line, Gisele Bundchen Intimates, native state of Rio Grande do Sul. her long blonde hair, sun-kissed skin and athletic launched in 2011 for the Brazilian label Hope. Bundchen began her career when the so-called build. “I saw something in her. I knew she would be Her final runway show was a symbolic return to “heroin chic” of pale, angular models like Kate Moss the great model of the future,” he told AFP. — AFP her roots. Bundchen and SPFW were both just start- was the prevailing aesthetic in high fashion. By ing out two decades ago when she had her first show there, taking the runway for local label Zoomp at 14 years old. Today, the twice-yearly event, which opened Monday, is the largest fashion show in Latin America. It was also the start of big things for Bundchen, who went on to model for major fashion houses such as Alexander Wang, Balenciaga, Carolina Herrera, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Versace and Victoria’s Secret. “I am grateful that at 14, I was given the oppor- tunity to start this journey. Today 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,” she wrote on Facebook, posting a picture of her teenage self.

Career height According to Forbes magazine, she has been the highest-paid model in the world for the past eight years, with $47 million in earnings last year. Only recently, she signed her largest ever contract- worth more than $25 million, according to Forbes- with US sports apparel firm Under Armor. “It’s mar- Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s husband US Tom Brady , of the New England Patriots velous she’s leaving the runway at a moment when and her father Valdir Bundchen attend the Colcci show during the 2016 Summer collections.