Candice Swanepoel

What model scout Kevin Ellise was doing in a Durban, South African flea market, we'll never know. But thank goodness he was there because, otherwise, we may have never had the pleasure of ogling a scantily clad Candice Swanepoel, whom he discovered there when she was just 15. Ellise had this to say about the first time he laid eyes on Swanepoel: "It was like… honestly, like a beautiful flamingo walking past my shop. The way she walked past just did it for me.” Clearly it did it for the modeling agencies too; Swanepoel was commanding 5,000 Euros for a day's work by the time she was 16.

candice swanepoel ascends the modeling ranks at warp speed

Candice Swanepoel's rise to stardom is the stuff fairy tales are made of. As a young girl growing up in the remote South African farming village Mooi River, Swanepoel's model aspirations were literally oceans away. Once she was discovered, Candice met with the head of a local modeling agency who snapped some Polaroids and sent them out to Select, a London agency that represents top talent like Sienna Miller and Helena Christensen. Within 25 minutes of receiving the Polaroids, Select requested Candice's presence in London immediately. After a flurry of castings in London and New York, Swanepoel was just a year into her career when she began strutting down the world's most exclusive catwalks while appearing in Italian Vogue photo campaigns for Fornarina and Top Shop.

candice swanepoel becomes a victoria's secret angel

Having appeared on the covers of Greece Vogue and Elle Germany, as well as runway shows for Dolce & Gabbana, Betsey Johnson, Tommy Hilfiger, and Diane Von Furstenberg, Swanepoel's career has been a success by any standards. But in 2007, she joined the ranks of supermodels Miranda Kerr and Alessandra Ambrosio when Victoria's Secret bestowed on her a title that transcends our conventional ideas of beauty: Candice Swanepoel became a Victoria's Secret Angel, and will forever be worshiped by you, us and everyone we know.