Hers is the face and form that sold thousands of thongs. For seven years, Gisele Bündchen placed her 5-foot-11 frame at the service of Victoria’s Secret, helping fuel demand for the company’s panties and bras. Now the Brazilian supermodel is taking on her former employer and on her own turf.
Images of Bündchen sporting her line of lacy underthings are plastered on billboards and buses in major Brazilian cities. Gisele Bündchen Intimates is the product of a three-year-old collaboration with Hope, a Brazilian maker of intimate apparel and swimwear. In May, the family-owned company will inaugurate a Gisele Bündchen Intimates store inside a luxury mall in São Paulo. That happens to be the same month Victoria’s Secret will open a shop inside São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, its first in Brazil.
