Alessandra Ambrosio (born April 11, 1981) is a Brazilian model. Her
last name is spelled in Portuguese as Ambr?sio, but she omits the
diacritic mark in her modeling work. She is one of the faces of Guess?
and Victoria's Secret.
Alessandra Ambrosio was part of the deluge of Brazilian models that
emerged after Gisele B?ndchen opened the floodgates. One of the star
models of that group, of which fellow Victoria's Secret/Guess? Model
(and best friend) Ana Beatriz Barros is a member, the 5'10", light
brown-haired Ambrosio accumulated quite a career in the late 1990's
into the next century. Ambrosio was born in Erechim, Brazil, a small
town in the south. As an early teen, she enrolled in a modeling class
and subsequently was entered in the Elite modeling agency's 1996 Look
of the Year competition. Though she did not win, she was offered an
Elite contract one year after. Alessandra?s boyfriend is Marcelo
Boldrini, also a Brazilian model, born in Porto Alegre (city about 500
km from Erechim).
Her first modeling job was the cover of the Brazilian Marie Claire,
and Ambrosio followed with other editorial work, but it was not long
after that the Marcianos at Guess signed Ambrosio for their fall
Millennium campaign in 2000. Her lucrative print career began with
being a Guess? Girl and continued with deals with Revlon and
Victoria's Secret. Ambrosio walked the VS runway for the first time in
2001 and continued to be a fixture in subsequent shows. Ambrosio was
also picked to be the spokesmodel for the 2004 Pink line by Victoria's
Secret.