Not only does Brazil have its own fashion industry, some Brazilian models are among the top supermodels of the world. Of the five top paid models in the world in 2007, three were Brazilian:
The best paid:
1. Gisele Bundchen 
(1980- ): $33 million (2.6 million crowns), the top paid and richest model in the world. She is worth about $150 million (12 million crowns) and has appeared on over 500 magazine covers. She left Victoria’s Secret in 2007. From Rio Grande do Sul. She is German on both sides of her family. 1.80 m. WHR 0.67.
4. Adriana Lima (1981- ): $6 million (a half million crowns). Spike TV in America says she is the hottest girl on the planet. More on her below. She is from Salvador, Bahia. She is part Swiss, black and native Indian. 1.78 m. WHR 0.69.
5. Alessandra Ambrosio (1981- ): $6 million. People magazine says she is one of the 100 most beautiful people in the world. From Rio Grande do Sul. She is part Italian, part Polish. She has wanted to be a model since she was eight. 1.78 m. WHR 0.67.
Kate Moss of Britain is #2 and Heidi Klum of Germany is #3.
Here is who I think are the most beautiful Brazilian models, of the ones I know of. Some no longer model, but they have all modelled at some point:
The most beautiful:
1. Taís Araújo (1978- ), from Rio, became the first black actress to appear as a main character in a telenovela on Brazilian television. She is a presenter on the television show “Superbonita”, about how to be beautiful! More.
2. Adriana Bombom (1974- ) is a Carnival queen from Rio. She she was once one of Xuxa’s helpers. What a body! More.
3. Ildi Silva (1982- ) is a television actress from Bahia. She was discovered on the streets of Salvador and became a model. More.
4. Rojane Fradique (1986- ) is a fashion model from Bahia in the north where most people are black. She is tall (1.82 metres), extremely thin but looks like a work of art. In 2003 she placed second in Brazil in the Elite Model Look contest and 15th worldwide. More.
5. Raica Oliveira (1984- ) is a model from Niteroi, near Rio. She now lives in New York with her mother. She has been on the runway in Paris and Milan and in many fashion magazines and makeup ads. She is friends with fellow Brazilian models Adriana Lima and Ana Beatriz Barros.
6. Adriana Lima (1981- ) She has modelled for Victoria’s Secret and Maybelline. She is friends with Raica Oliveira. More.
7. Fernanda Tavares (1980- ) is a supermodel from Natal.
8. Camila Pitanga (1977- ) is a Brazilian model and television actress from Rio. Best known in Brazil as Bebel on the telenovela “Paraíso Tropical”. Ildi Silva, listed above, plays a secretary on the same show. Her father is black, her mother is white.
9. Lucy Ramos (1982- ) is a model and television actress. She is best known for her role in the show “Sinhá Moça”. She was born in Recife in Pernambuco. More.
10. Marina Montini (1948-2006) was a beauty from Rio in the 1960s and 1970s. She was so beautiful that men painted pictures of her, especially Di Cavalcanti. Her heavy drinking brought her to an early end at age 58.
See also:
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 05:11:26
Gisselle, like most famous (and non-famous, alike) white women looks scary w/o makeup.
Adriana Lima …very racially ambigious. “Exotic” but not that pretty to me. It’s all subjective though.
The Afro-Brazilian ladies are very pretty in their own right though. Do Afro-Brazilians have a lot of visible within Brazilian media? I remember watching a documentary and one beautiful Afro Brazilian model was complaining about how all the fashion media there almost go towards a more Nordic look. She went to a magazine stand and gave that claim some credibility.
Who are the rest of the highest paid models? Is Naomi high up there?
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 11:09:46
The fashion industry in Brazil is racist. Most fashion models are white even though half the country is black or mixed. It is hard for Afro-Brazilian models to get work, but since the 1990s they have broken into advertising.
Rojane, the darkest model listed above, had to pretty much leave Brazil to find work. So did Suyane, not listed here, who is part black, part native Indian. She is beautiful, but not in a white way:
http://ego.globo.com/Entretenimento/Paparazzo/foto/0,,7374106,00.jpg
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 12:54:54
The list of the best-paid models comes from Fortune magazine. They only seem to list the top five. Tyra was the top model in 2006, her last year in the business. Naomi was not in the top five in either 2006 or 2007.
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 17:51:13
Its so funny I find, that we non-Brazilians all believed(at least I did) that Brazil was a melting pot, every culture, non-racist, beautiful people et cetera, et cetera, yet its just as racist as everywhere else(if not more so). It seems that they have so much black history and culture, that the elite are trying to run away from it or something. Sad
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 18:47:13
Same here: I thought they were less racist too, but it is just that the racism there is different.
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 19:10:25
Yeah, it defintely seems to be a European/color hierarchy in Brazil. Sad because the African culture there is so deep and vibrant. I don’t think any culture, outside of Subsaharan Africa, that doesn’t have a degree of anti-black prejudice.
Mon 1 Sep 2008 at 19:12:11
Yeah, it defintely seems to be a European/color hierarchy in Brazil, from what I gather. Sad because the African culture there is so deep and vibrant. I don’t think any country, outside of Subsaharan Africa, that doesn’t have some degree of anti-black prejudice.
Tue 2 Sep 2008 at 02:04:00
there is a beautiful model by the name of Emanuala de Paula, that is getting lots of work. she has recently become part of the Victoria Secret ad campaigns.
Tue 2 Sep 2008 at 02:17:25
There needs to be more afro or mixed brazilians in the media. Same for the rest of Latin America. I swear sometimes when you watch Univision or Telemundo, you’d think brown people didn’t exist at all.
Tue 2 Sep 2008 at 11:31:29
Yes, I have heard of Emanuela de Paula. She is number ten on my list of the most beautiful black Brazilian models:
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/black-brazilian-models/
Thu 30 Oct 2008 at 22:48:10
The white and light skinned women on this page are making the most money. And people think racism does not exist in Brazil. It sickening.