Long read
Adriana Lima on allowing herself freedom, staying human, and the ongoing journey of self-exploration, in conversation with Tina Lončar.
They were divine figures. Modern versions of Greek goddesses. Winged Aphrodites. At the dawn of the new millennium, with Fashion TV flickering behind nearly every bar in the city, we would steal glances at it between conversations – and they felt larger than life. They strode down the runway, hips swaying with purpose, and just at the moment when it seemed they might stride off-screen, the camera would capture their flirtatious smiles and cascades of glossy hair that, with a turn, briefly draped the screen like a curtain. Back then, my mind was a tangle of teenage insecurities. The world was a buffet, and I stood there with an empty plate – life had yet to begin. The models, so beautiful it seemed Michelangelo himself had sculpted them in stone according to the template of his finest dreams, appeared like untouchable icons. They were probably everything I thought I wasn’t. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was the Olympus of fashion, and its stars embodied an ideal whose very existence you weren’t quite sure was real. Every girl’s room I peeked into, including my own, looked like a curious shrine, crowded with posters and meticulously cut-out magazine spreads of Angels. We devoured their beauty secrets like a morning shot of apple cider vinegar. We dreamed that only a tiny insight separated us from waterfalls of perfect hair and sculpted, marble-like thighs. They were living myths, proof that anything was possible. Magical and unrepeatable, like works of art – but somehow untouchable and distant.
A quarter of a century later, another cold morning dawned in New York. In the scent of the crisp winter air that gripped the streets of Downtown Manhattan, there was an unmistakable hint of Christmas. It was exactly the moment when romantics like me begin to hear Shane MacGowan’s rough voice echoing in their heads as he sings Fairytale of New York. In the studio, located just above an art gallery, everything was ready for the shoot. Neatly arranged on the racks, the pieces from the new collections waited patiently. The set had long been prepared, the room pulsed with excitement accompanied by the tempting aroma of coffee, and in the middle of the almost empty space, bathed only in the gentle warmth of the morning light, stood Adriana Lima. She laughed with her eyes and out loud, the way people do when they embrace life fully, without holding anything back. Watching her so free and light, I can’t help but wonder if she realizes the mythic status she carries as a Victoria’s Secret Angel. She made her debut on the Victoria’s Secret runway in 1999 at just seventeen, opened The fashion show five times, and last year, in a sheer Swarovski-crystal bodysuit, she walked the runway for the twentieth time. Despite all that experience, she remains cheerful, with a slightly childlike impatience – as if she were someone who hadn’t yet endured countless fashion shoots, thousands of runway kilometers, and three decades of work. Or perhaps it is exactly that experience that brings her ease. Every inch of her being seems to pulse with that vibrant, Brazilian energy, as if she can’t wait to start playing. Without fun, ultimately, nothing really matters.
“I’ve always seen my job as a way to help bring beautiful art to life. I love working with incredible stylists and photographers and creating images that tell a story. I’m still deeply passionate about fashion and the storytelling that happens through it,” Adriana tells me, recalling how she entered the fashion world almost by chance. She had signed up for a Ford Models agency contest at her school with her best friend, just for fun. Only a few months later, she left her hometown of Salvador for New York, went on castings, and before she knew it, she was shooting with Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue and walking her first runway – Anna Sui at New York Fashion Week in September 1997.
Since then, fashion has undergone and survived countless seismic shifts, and Adriana has found her place through all of them. Her mesmerizing, catlike blue eyes, long dark hair, and stunning figure – whose secrets everyone wanted to know – have inspired designers and artists for years. Lima earned her status as one of today’s greatest supermodels by achieving feats no one had managed before. When she decided to step away from Victoria’s Secret in 2018, she left behind the longest career of any Angel in the brand’s history, becoming almost synonymous with it. In 2013, she became the first pregnant woman to grace the Pirelli Calendar; in February 2012, she was the only celebrity that year to appear in two Super Bowl ads; and in 2008, she wore the Fantasy Bra at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – adorned with 3,900 gems designed by Martin Katz, valued at over $5 million. “Victoria’s Secret has been such a big part of my life and career – I grew up with that team! The memories are countless and will always stay with me. We had so many incredible moments together, and I learned so much about the industry in those early days. I’m very grateful for that chapter of my journey,” she recalls today.
As we marvel at the phenomenon that is Adriana Lima and discuss how she has remained relevant all these years, our fashion director, Taylor Angino, sums it up perfectly: she’s “one in a billion.” And truly – Adriana Lima belongs to more than just one era; she has achieved far more than the fleeting brilliance typical of fashion fame. She has become timeless. The answer to how she has navigated every trap and challenge, surpassing the tests of relentless time, soon revealed itself before our eyes. It was enough to simply watch her on set. Her ease, intimacy, and laughter echoing through the walls melted away the last icy shard of untouchability that I had once projected onto her. “She’s an artist, but also a work of art,” Taylor tells me as we watch her dip her hands into a bucket of blue paint, smearing it across a white canvas and leaving abstract traces of her movements. As she does this, she looks like she is dancing – unrestrained and free, unbothered by the thick blue paint slipping endlessly from her hands. With equal amounts of dedication and presence, she approaches every photograph, surrendering to her creativity, exploring, and having fun. How unusual, I thought to myself, that people with years of experience often become more rigid, as if the repetition of similar actions steals the curiosity that comes with the magic of the new. I sometimes feel that myself, and yet she does something entirely different. She laughs and listens, allowing herself to be free, as if a large part of her magic lies in having preserved the little girl within her – that childlike joy so many of us inadvertently lose along the way, trying to survive the storms and shipwrecks of adult life.
“Spending time with my family while also working on exciting projects that truly fulfill me is what gives my life meaning. Finding that harmony between work and home brings me a lot of joy,” Adriana tells me sincerely, adding, “Motherhood has been the most beautiful journey. Being a hands-on mother and spending time with my kids is my favorite thing in the world. It’s taught me patience above all, and to relax a little! I’ve always been such an organized person, and my children have taught me to let go sometimes and embrace the chaos.” Her satisfaction is evident in everything she does, as is the remarkable fusion of her professionalism and the ease with which she follows her instincts. We designed the shoot around the concept of a female artistic performance, presence, and spirituality, and Adriana immersed herself in it almost ritually. In a time when technology threatens to flatten the diversity of our ideas, seeking to unify our thoughts, art and creativity become the last sanctuary of humanity. Beauty lies in our unpredictability, and the seed of liberation in embracing the imperfections we’ve long tried to escape. Watching Adriana “pose,” surrendering to the free movements of her body and trusting her instincts enough to know they will lead her to a place of joy, feels like a performance. Shooting with her is far more than just a photoshoot; it is a process in which she herself becomes art.
“Have you always been this free, present, and composed?” I ask her, curiously. “Discipline is what keeps me grounded! I’m very routine-oriented, and I love structure. But over the years, I’ve also learned to trust my body and my intuition, to know when it’s time to slow down or when it’s time to push forward”, she answers me. Authentic, warm, free, approachable, and gentle, with blue, smiling eyes. No, I tell my younger self, she is not a divine figure – she is simply human. And that is the most beautiful thing you can be today.
Foto: Kat Irlin
Moda: Taylor Angino
Model: Adriana Lima @The Society Management
Casting: Kathryn Costigan
Šminka: Mitch Yoshida
Kosa: Erol Karadag
Manikura: Dawn Sterling
Set dizajn: Bailey Brown
Kreativna produkcija: Marita Bobelj
Asistenti mode: Olivia Jakubik, Larissa Lampitelli
Set dizajn asistent: Peter Christensen
Studio menadžer: Franck Raharinosy
Post Production: Aly Studio
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