Candice Swanepoel, a charming farm girl from South Africa, never imagined entering the glamour world of the fashion industry. However, her drop dead gorgeous looks caught the attention of fashion capitals around the world, propelling her to become one of the most successful and sought-after models in the business. With numerous assignments and contracts, she has become one of the top earning models globally, gracing the covers of popular fashion magazines and endorsing various fashion brands. Candice has also been associated with Victoria’s Secret, showcasing her figure to die for on the runway and in commercials. Her beauty has earned her a top spot in beauty-related polls conducted by various organizations.
Quick Facts
- Also Known As: Candice Susan Swanepoel
- Age: 35 Years, 35 Year Old Females
- Family: father: Willem Swanepoel, mother: Eileen Swanepoel
- Models
- South African Women
- Height: 5’10” (178 cm), 5’10” Females
Childhood & Early Life
Candice Susan Swanepoel was born on October 20, 1988 in the village of Mooi River, KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa into an Afrikaner family of Dutch settlers. She was pursuing her schooling from all-girls boarding St. Anne’s College when she was spotted by Kevin Ellise, a modeling scout, at a flea market in Durban which changed her life forever. She was just 15.
Within a year, she walked the ramp for major designers and got busy booking more modeling contracts all over Europe, earning around €5000 a day. She also appeared in the Italian magazine ‘Vogue’.
Career
She started off as a runway model for Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana at Ready to Wear – Spring / Summer 2006 fashion show. Her charm and hot looks got her recognition from all directions of fashion, with top designers and magazines craving to sign her. She worked for various modeling agencies in Milan, London, Paris and South Africa for two years, after which she moved to New York to take up modeling as a full-time career.
In 2007, she was signed by lingerie brand, Victoria’s Secret, and walked the ramp for them. Since then, she has appeared in their commercial advertisements and modeled for swimsuit campaigns on various occasions. She was made a Victoria’s Secret Angel for one of its lingerie line, Angel, in 2010. In 2010, she was one among the models featured in the ‘SWIM’ catalog, along with other fashion models, like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Erin Heatherton, Lindsay Ellington, and Behati Prinsloo. In August 2010, she inaugurated Victoria’s Secret’s first retail store at West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Canada. She has appeared on the cover pages of some reputed international glamour magazines, such as Italian Vogue, Argentine Harper’s Bazaar, Chinese GQ and South African ELLE. She has modeled for a number of Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, German, Mexican, British, Australian, Romanian and Turkish magazines.
She has appeared in commercials for numerous designer labels, some being Ralph Lauren, Juicy Couture, Guess, Diesel, Swarovski, Nike, Miu Miu and True Religion. Her designer clientele includes Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Chanel, Fendi, Diane von Furstenberg and Christian Dior among others, whom she has participated in fashion shows for.
Major Works
This tall stunner with drop-dead looks gained worldwide recognition when she was hired by Victoria’s Secret in 2007 and got associated with their modeling assignments and lingerie commercials. In 2013, she ramp-walked for Victoria’s Secret fashion show featuring the most expensive ‘fantasy bra’ – ‘Royal Fantasy Bra’ costing $10 million, encrusted with 4200 precious gems, including a 52-carat pear ruby, designed by Mouawad.
Awards & Achievements
She is the first South African model to work for the lingerie giant, Victoria’s Secret. She was ranked #20 in the Ask Men’s ‘Top 99 Most Desirable Women’ list in 2011, which was upgraded to #10 in 2012 and #11 in 2013. The FHM magazine voted her at number 62 in the ‘100 Sexiest Women in the World’ poll, in 2011. In 2012, she was ranked #10 in the ‘World’s Top-Earning Models list published by Forbes, with an estimated fortune of $3 million, which improved to #9 in 2013, with $3.3 million estimated earnings. During the 2012 fashion show, she was the only Victoria’s Secret Angel to get her own feature, where her biography was telecast. She was chosen as the cover model for Victoria’s Secret SWIM Catalogue in 2013. In 2014, she topped the list of ‘World’s Hot 100 Beautiful Women’ surveyed by Maxim magazine.
Personal Life
She has been dating Brazilian supermodel, Hermann Nicoli, whom she met in Paris at a fashion event in 2006, since she was 17 years old. She is known for mastering several languages, with exceptional fluency in English, Afrikaans and Portuguese, which she learnt from Hermann Nicoli, her longtime beau. She considers her co-fashion models at Victoria’s Secret – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Behati Prinsloo as her close buddies.