adriana lima modeling career

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Adriana Francesca Lima is a Brazilian model known for her work with Victoria's Secret and Maybelline cosmetics. Lima was discovered at age 13, and entered and finished first in Brazil's Ford Supermodel of the World competition at 15, finishing second the following year before signing with Elite Model Management in New York City.


Early Life and Family

Lima is of African, Native South American and Swiss descent. She was born in the northeastern coastal town of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil on June 12, 1981. Her father, from whom she was estranged for most of her life, is Nelson Torres. Her mother, Maria da Graça Lima, was a social worker who gave birth to Lima at the age of 18. Lima revealed that her father walked out on her family when she was six months old, but has been making recent attempts to reconcile. In late 2007, Lima revealed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that although she is her mother's only child, she has two half brothers, aged 7 and 11, from her father's second marriage. Coming from a poor family, her first time leaving her country and first time on a plane was when she was 15. She was raised mainly by her mother and grandmother.

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Modeling Career

Lima never thought about being a model. However, she had a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and didn't want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her. Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition. Soon after, at the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Brazil's Ford Supermodel of the World Search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford Supermodel of the World contest and finished in second place.

Three years later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio began to expand by leaps and bounds, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As for fashion shows, she has walked the catwalks for big-name designers such as Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Emanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Valentino, among others. Lima then became a GUESS? girl appearing on GUESS?' Fall 2000 ad campaign. She also appeared in the book A second decade of Guess? Images.

Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, as well as bebe, Mossimo, Armani, Bulgari, De Beers, FCUK, Intimissimi, Keds, Swatch, Versace, and BCBG. She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Vogue, GQ, Marie Claire, Arena, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and many more. Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest-selling issue that magazine for the year. She also appeared in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar and became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile, a move that earned her the nickname, "the Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy."




adriana lima in Elle magazine

In February 2008 she was featured on the cover of Esquire magazine, re-creating the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover on Esquire's 75th anniversary along with fellow Victoria's Secret Angels Karolina Kurkova, Izabel Goulart and Selita Ebanks.

Model.com featured her at No.3 on the list of the hottest models today. She graced the cover of GQ Magazine April 2008 issue (which brought a record number of web hits for GQ online[citation needed]) and appeared only in shoes, diamonds and gloves for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair celebrating 20 years of supermodels with her fellow Angels. Lima was chosen to be a part of People magazine's 100 most beautiful people in the world, sharing that space with her fellow Angels, with whom she also received a star on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame" prior to the 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In February 2008 she was chosen to be the face of Mexico's Liverpool department store chain and launched the partnership with a press conference, runway show, and summer campaign.

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