Why Brazilians are really going to miss retiring supermodel Gisele

Friends, industry professionals and colleagues used words like "punctual," "secure investment" and "well-educated" to describe her — words rarely associated with models, fashion or tropical, impulsive Brazil, where she is often described as an über-model, rather than a supermodel.

Nonetheless Brazilians can claim her as their own. "Gisele is what most represents Brazil abroad. It is Pelé, carnival, and Gisele," said Fernanda Tavares, a New York-based Brazilian model who has been her friend since both started their careers together 20 years ago, at 14. Tavares was among those who suggested Bündchen will still do selected catwalk shows, as well as her advertising contracts.

The German colonies in the south of the country where Bündchen grew up are as much a part of Brazil's colorful patchwork of immigration as São Paulo's Lebanese and Japanese communities. While some Brazilian women complain that she is cold and aloof, plenty identify with Bündchen's easy charm, even if few share her blonde hair and blue eyes. Gisele, as she is known here, emphasizes family, which plays well in Brazil's conservative, yet chaotic society, where many regard family as the only institution that can be depended on.

Wholesome yet sexy Gisele is Brazil as the country would like to be seen. And Brazilians celebrate her international successes. "She is an icon for those who work in fashion," said Michelli Provensi, a Brazilian model who published a 2013 book on her experiences. "It was her who put Brazilian fashion on the map. It wasn't the stylists, it was the models."

According to Forbes, Bündchen has long been the highest-paid model in the world, having earned $386 million since 2001. In 2009, after dating Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, she married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady; they have two children. Last week Brady told Brazilian television that the couple aim to pass on to their children the small-town family values she grew up with.

Gisele was raised with five sisters in the small town of Horizontina, in Rio Grande do Sul state in the south of Brazil. Her parents still speak German, though she's a 6th-generation Brazilian.

The town's airport was named after her grandfather Walter, a former mayor. Her father Valdir, is a sociologist who writes self-help books. "The family is the stronghold where everything is taught," Bündchen's father said in a 2013 interview for Brazil's Donna Magazine.

Her twin sister Patricia is one of her managers. Another sister, Graziela, is a federal judge. It is a close family. "Well structured, very educated, with strong family values," said Monica Monteiro, a São Paulo model agent who was Bündchen's agent for 12 years after Gisele came second in a national model agency contest and moved to São Paulo to start her career.

"She was very skinny. She had a lot of hair. She was very funny. She had a very beautiful skin. What I noticed most was. . . this happiness of hers," said Monteiro. "She had never seen a magazine. She lived in a very small city, she did not have access to fashion."

Gisele learned fast - how to pose, how to behave, how to talk with clients. Within eight months her career was taking off. "She asked, 'What do I do to be a top model.' I said, 'You have to sell more,' " said Monteiro. "She was born with a marketing course in her head."

Cyclical changes in fashion worked to her benefit. When she was dubbed "model of the year" on the cover of U.S. Vogue in 1999, it marked the end of the "heroin chic" era, characterized by pale, skinny models. "The world was needing colors and happiness and Gisele represented this," said Monteiro. "Sexy, natural, tanned."

Like many Brazilian women, Gisele wears a natural, confident sexuality that appeals to men without alienating women, which the many brands she continues to advertise have discovered to be a potent combination. In Brazil she has sold everything from shampoo to cable TV.

"Everything that Gisele does, sells," said Joyce Pascowitch, a Brazilian fashion industry veteran who publishes a celebrity gossip site called Glamorama and two glossy magazines.

"She represents the contemporary Brazilian woman really well, someone who works, has her family," said Daniella Bianchi, managing director of the Brazilian branch of a consulting outfit called Interbrand.

And Gisele herself is generally fast to praise her mother country, even though she and Brady live in Boston.

"There's nowhere in the world where I feel better than Brazil," she told the Brazilian celebrity magazine Contigo last year. "I've lived in the United States for many years. I like it there, but it is very different to the way I was raised and my behavior.