Candice Swanepoel is a South African model whose lingerie career runs through Victoria's Secret: she appeared in the brand's advertising from 2007, became an Angel in 2010, wore the $10 million Royal Fantasy Bra in 2013 and walked the relaunched show in 2024 and 2025. In 2018 she started her own swimwear label, Tropic of C.
Mooi River and a Durban flea market
Swanepoel was born on 20 October 1988 and grew up on a farm near Mooi River in KwaZulu-Natal. She trained as a ballet dancer and boarded at St. Anne's Diocesan College in nearby Hilton. At 15 a model scout spotted her at a flea market in Durban. Her agencies have included The Lions in New York and Elite in Paris, and her runway list takes in Chanel, Fendi, Givenchy, Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Victoria's Secret, 2007 to 2010
She started in the Victoria's Secret commercials and walked her first Fashion Show in 2007. The swimwear side used her early: she was one of the featured models of the 2010 SWIM catalog, alongside Lindsay Ellingson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Behati Prinsloo and Erin Heatherton. The Angel contract came the same year. On 12 August 2010 she opened the first Victoria's Secret store in Canada, at West Edmonton Mall.
In 2013 she was the cover model of the Victoria's Secret Swim catalog, which in those years was a commercial event of its own.
The Royal Fantasy Bra
The Fantasy Bra was the show's annual jewelry stunt, and by the early 2010s its price tag had been shrinking. The 2009 to 2012 pieces were valued at $2 million to $3 million. Swanepoel's 2013 bra jumped back to $10 million.
Mouawad's 4,200 stones
Named the Royal Fantasy Bra, it was made by the jeweler Mouawad. With its matching belt it carried more than 4,200 gems, rubies, diamonds and yellow sapphires set in 18-carat gold, around a 52-carat ruby at the center. It was her only Fantasy Bra. The 2015 Fireworks Fantasy Bra, sometimes credited to her, was worn by Lily Aldridge.
Runway record
She walked every show from 2007 to 2015, missed 2016, and returned for 2017 and 2018. Her earnings tracked the contract: Forbes ranked her eighth among top-earning models in 2015 and again in 2016, at an estimated $7 million for the latter year.
Tropic of C and the second act
Tropic of C, her own swimwear collection, launched in 2018, the year the original televised show ended. It won Launch of the Year at the fifth Daily Front Row Awards.
Victoria's Secret brought her back as it changed course. In August 2023 she appeared in the brand's Icon campaign, photographed by Mikael Jansson, with Naomi Campbell and Gisele Bündchen next to newer ambassadors such as Paloma Elsesser and Adut Akech. When the Fashion Show returned in 2024 after a six-year gap, she was in the lineup, and she walked again in 2025, one of the few Angels from the 2010s to bridge both eras of the show.
Last updated
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org: Candice Swanepoel
- en.wikipedia.org: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
- en.wikipedia.org: Naomi Campbell