Gisele Bundchen was forced to walk topless in her first fashion show – and says she "cried" with "embarrassment".
The 38-year-old Brazilian model walked in her first big fashion show for Alexander McQueen in 1998 when she was just 18 years old, and after being forced to walk the runway in a fishtail skirt and nothing else, she began to sob as she worried that her parents would be "disappointed".
Writing in her new book, ‘Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life’, Gisele wrote: "This was my first big international show, and I had no idea how it worked. It was definitely fewer clothes than I’d ever worn on any runway.
"I began to cry. I had no idea what to do. Mostly, I thought about how disappointed and embarrassed my parents would be. I tried to hold back my tears, but they just kept coming down, and the black feathers glued to my lashes began coming unstuck."
The supermodel – who has kids Benjamin, eight, and Vivian, five, with her husband Tom Brady – was saved by the show’s makeup artist Val Garland, who painted her chest with white makeup to create the illusion of a top, giving Gisele the confidence to continue the show.
She added in her book: "If Val hadn’t shown up just then, I seriously doubt I could have walked the runway. I remember thinking that if anyone took photos of me, at least my parents wouldn’t be able to recognise me in my black wig."
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