Now that we’ve had an entire evening to digest the fact that Gisele Bündchen graces the April 2010 Shape issue of Vogue, it’s time to share. Contributing editor Joan Juliet Buck describes an intimate scene: upon walking into Gisele’s Boston home, she finds the supermodel curled into a sofa chair with her son. Through the conversation, which ranges from Gisele’s alter ego to her new skin care line, a few quotes popped out - like her love for kung fu, why she has a star tattoo, and the meaning of her son’s name.On her workout regime: “I did kung fu up until two weeks before Benjamin was born, and yoga three days a week. I think a lot of people get pregnant and decide they can turn into garbage disposals. I was mindful about what I ate, and I gained only 30 pounds.”
On the meaning of her son’s name: “I wanted him to be called River because I wanted something always flowing, immortal. My husband said, ‘There’s no way we’re going to call him River.’ But my father’s name is Reinoldo, so it’s a homage to him. And it’s like water.”
On going back to work after having her son: “I got to the studio and I felt like I was E.T.—whoa, what’s going on? Hair and makeup? I hadn’t looked at myself in a mirror for a month and a half. I’d been in my house, in a cocoon with my kids, my husband, my dogs.”
Regarding the meaning of her star tattoo: “My grandmother told me and my sisters that everyone has a special star. I looked at my star every night before bed, just like brushing my teeth. When I came to New York and I opened the window of the thirty-fifth-floor apartment, there’s light pollution and fog, and I couldn’t see my star. So I drew it on my wrist with a pen, but it kept washing away. Then I went to a tattoo parlor on Second Avenue and had it done. It was something I had been missing, and now, no matter where I went, it came with me.”
On the creation of her alter ego: “I was in the fashion shows in Milan, I was seventeen, I was doing like 100 shows. People were asking, ‘How does it feel to be the model of the moment?’
The reason behind Sejaa: “I wanted to teach girls to love themselves and take care of their bodies. What is the first thing you see every morning? Your face! What do you put every day on your face? Cream! I have made the simplest, purest cream—an everyday cream—but it comes with an affirmation.”
Why there’s a mud mask in her skin care line: “When I was a teenager, I had pimples—oh, God, every time someone looked at my face I thought they were looking at my pimples. I put mud on my face to dry them out, and it worked. “I can do all this because I’m financing it on my own terms, and if I want to give away 5 percent of everything I make, no one can tell me not to.”
Her two secrets of life: “The first is wake up in the morning and be grateful you are here, alive and healthy. And the second is: Give.”
