At just 16, this tousle-haired brunette from the city of Cascavel in Paraná state has all the makings of a proper, 1980s-style supermodel: the curves, the personality, the bombshell looks. “I wanted to be a model because I like to be happy,” she says. “And it’s in this profession that I feel I have my place. There’s no routine and I’m always surprising myself.” The daughter of a mechanic and a shopkeeper, she started her career at 11, by 12 had worked for Brazilian brand Ellus, and at 13 made her first trip abroad to Argentina. Rahmeier is just back from New York where she has worked for DKNY and is doing the new Benetton campaign. “It was an incredible, unforgettable experience,” she says. “Each job, I was more certain that this is what I love.”
Born in 1991 in the small hill-town of Seara in the interior of Santa Catarina, the blue-eyed Lovani was discovered by a São Paulo photographer and soon moved to the city. A trip to New York made her name, and she was cited by Elle UK as one of the fashion market’s most promising new figures. “I never imagined I could become a model,” she says. “It was destiny. Because I lived in a small town, really far from the big capitals. But when I was discovered I believed it would be a good way to better my life and the life of my family.” Since then she has worked with Mario Testino and hot-shot photographer Jacques Dequeker, and cites a Gucci campaign as her favorite to date. The success of Brazilian girls like Gisele and Alessandra is, for many of the new Brazilian beauties, an inspiration. “As we have so many great top models, this has been the incentive for the younger girls,” says Pinnow.
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The 17-year-old new star is from Brazil’s South—the tiny town of Faxinalzinho, in Rio Grande do Sul—but bucks the trend with her brown eyes and hair. Her parents are farmers and let her take a modeling course two hours away in Herechim. From there, it took just one visit to São Paulo for her to be discovered (and for her braces to be removed.) She describes her look as “basic. Black, beige, and really high heels” Her beauty icon, like most, is Gisele. Why does she think Brazil produces so many top models? “It’s because we have so much miscegenation, flexibility and charm.”
Planet Fashion’s new darling—at least, so say her agents—has wickedly dark eyes and hair, and has recently modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, and Victoria’s Secret. Oh, and for Brazilian C&A, like Gisele before her. Now based in New York, she’s from São Jose dos Campos in São Paulo state and turns 20 on July 23. “It was nothing,” she says of her break. “I did a competition in my hometown and decided to go to the big city of São Paulo and try for a professional career. It worked out.” Like Indiamara, she says her look is “basic,” but she prefers heels. “Today all the models dress the same and I hate this,” she says. “Brazilian beauty is considered the best, but aside from his, we are happy, have attitude, and most importantly, communication with the client. Today it’s not enough to be pretty, we have to be intelligent. A lot of business!”
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The farmer’s daughter from Braço do Norte in Santa Catarina used to climb trees and fight with her cousins before she made her first modeling trip abroad at just 16. Back in Brazil, she made her name at São Paulo and Rio Fashion Weeks and had soon made the all-important cover of Vogue Brasil. She lived in France for six months and appeared on the Brazilian TV show Beautiful and Dangerous, but decided modeling was easier than acting. Now 21, she is already regarded as one of the most important Brazilian models and recently appeared with three others on a Rolling Stone Brazil cover headlined “Super Powerful” with fellow “tops” Isabeli Fontana, Carol Trentini, and Izabel Goulart. From top photographer Bob Wolfenson to Daslu, the store for São Paulo’s super-rich, Renata has already conquered Brazil. She now wants to conquer New York. Oh, and she’s learning trapeze.
Now 19, green-eyed, raven-locked Débora Müller grew up in the little hick hill town of Cantagalo in the interior of Paraná state, a city that didn’t even exist until 1930. She was discovered by a booker in a bus station and made a splash in her first international season last year, during which she was singled out for praise by Russell March, one of the world’s top five casting directors, who said, “She has the face, the body, and the attitude that every designer needs on the catwalk.” Since then she’s been in mainstream fashion magazines like Marie Claire, Vogue, and Elle, but also specialist titles like São Paulo’s respected art-fashion title MAG, as well as catwalk shows for Prada, Miu Miu, and Marc Jacobs.
“Alícia is preferred by editors here in Brazil,” says a São Paulo fashion insider. “She has a lot of attitude, she’s secure, and she’s funny.” The green-eyed blonde didn’t grow up on a farm, like many of the girls on this list, but in the big city of Cascavel, in Paraná state, where her mother is a nutritionist and her father an agricultural engineer. It’s been just two years since Ms. Kuczman gave up her studies to become a model and moved first to São Paulo, then to New York. Since then, she’s made the pages of Vogue and Marie Claire, done shows for Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu, and been photographed by Jacques Dequeker.
One of the few black faces to have made her name in the Brazilian fashion industry, 21-year-old Samira Carvalho took an unusual route to fame: She won the Cover Girl competition for the magazine Raça (Race) in 2003 and hasn’t stopped working since. She divides her time between São Paulo, New York, and Europe, and cites the book The Art of Dissimulation, on racial issues, as a favorite. She likes hanging out in one of Rio de Janeiro’s many down-home samba bars listening to music and says she is known for being outspoken, which can be taken for rudeness. She’s from Piracicaba in São Paulo state.
Courtesy of Ford Models
The 18-year-old from Lages in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil, always wanted to be a model, but her father wouldn’t let her. Finally she persuaded him to let her enter a Ford Models competition, and she landed in the top five. Last year Carolina was the sensation at the Rio and São Paulo fashion weeks. Having done New York Fashion Week, she now lives in New York and has been shot by top photographer Bob Wolfenson and Gui Paganini for Elle Brasil.
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19-year-old Marcelia Freesz, from the interior farming town of Muqui in Espírito Santo state, has a classically Brazilian mix of ancestors. On her artist mother’s side, Japanese, black, and Italian. On her doctor father’s, Italian and German. Hence the dark hair and green eyes with that slight oriental curve. Discovered when her mother sent pictures to an uncle in New York with fashion biz connections, she didn’t enjoy the modeling world upon starting out in 2006. “I was more insecure,” she says. “I was just a girl.” But having worked steadily since then, in June she suddenly wowed Fashion Rio and São Paulo Fashion Week. “I grew up a little. I got more confident. Everyone was saying they knew who I was,” she explains. Now the Woody Allen fan—“I like his black humor”—has got her sights on Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein and is on her way back to New York. “It looks like it’s working out,” she says.
