Gisele Bündchen, the glamorous Brazilian fashion model, has at the age of thirty-three secured the top spot in Forbes’ annual list of the most minted models for the seventh year in a row.
The much-in-demand model and busy mother of two got record returns from contracts with H&M and Chanel, in addition to her own lingerie line.
Last year she made a whopping £26.8 million, six times more than the second-place model Miranda Kerr, who made a respectable £4.6 million. Kate Moss, by contrast, at the age of thirty-nine – and still going strong with campaigns for Rimmel and Versace – earned £3 million.
The gap at the top of the list of great earners is astronomically sensational.
Gisele, who is an occasional film actress and producer and also a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme, is according to Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell the only true remaining supermodel.
Since 2004 she has been the highest-paid model in the world, and is the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment industry as of 2007.
As these pictures clearly demonstrate, she can be likened to Lady Godiva who rode naked through the streets of Coventry, according to a legend dating back at least to the thirteenth century.
Hopefully, however, no Peeping Tom who looks at Gisele riding a white horse will, as a later version of the legend indicates, be struck blind or dead.
And before any raving feminists accuse me of salivating over Gisele’s beautiful assets, may I remind them that women today are as sexually attracted to their own gender as men – and in some cases even more. So let’s do away with the hypocrisy that men are unique in celebrating the exquisite feminine form, and in so doing allegedly demeaning women in general. This is poppycock of the worst kind.
Women have always been a breath of fragrant air, without whom the concept of beauty hardly exists. Gisele has proved that she is endowed with an astute business brain, as well as a God-given gift of a sublime external radiance and a body that captivates her environment.
For these heavenly fairings and at my own peril, I name her my woman of the week.