0 Isabeli Bergossi Fontana

Height: 177 cm (5′ 10)
Bust: 86 cm (34) Waist: 60 cm (24)
Hips: 89 cm (35)
She was born on July 4, 1983, in Curitiba, in the Paraná region of Brazil. She has two siblings; brothers Harrison and Heric. By the time she was merely 12 years of age, Isabeli told her mother that she wanted to become a model.

In 1996, she was a finalist in an Elite Model Look Contest in São Paulo, and the following year, at the age of only 14, she traveled from her native Brazil to Milan, to start working as a model. This move helped Isabeli see her home as those from other countries see it; “Everyone wants to know about Brazil,” she admits.

a controversial youth

In 1999, when she was 16, Isabeli appeared in the Victoria’s Secret catalog. This generated a bit of a stir in the fashion world, since Victoria’s Secret reportedly violated its policy of only hiring models that were 21 or older. But such controversy helped, rather than harmed, Isabeli’s prospects, especially in an industry that worships youth to extremes. A case in point: Isabeli revealed that when she was 16, clients complained that she looked too young; when she was 17, they thought she looked too old. C’est la vie in the world of fashion.