Izabel Goulart

Izabel Goulart holds an odd distinction in Victoria's Secret history: her time as an Angel lasted only from 2005 to 2008, yet she walked every Victoria's Secret Fashion Show from 2005 to 2016, twelve in a row. The Brazilian model was born Maria Izabel Goulart Dourado on October 23, 1984, in São Carlos, in São Paulo state.

Spotted at the supermarket

At 14, while shopping for groceries with her mother, Goulart was told by a hairstylist that she should model. She moved to the state capital, São Paulo, then to France, and returned to São Paulo in August 2001, aged 16, to join the Success agency. Ney Alves, later director of Major Models Brazil, is credited with launching her in the Brazilian market.

Her first show was not a good omen: her top fell open on the runway, and the incident ran in Brazilian newspapers. She kept going, and her list of designers grew to include Chanel, Valentino, Givenchy, Balenciaga and Stella McCartney.

Wings in 2005

Goulart's first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was the 2005 edition at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York, and she was contracted as an Angel the same year. Before the 2007 show she was among the Angels who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. People magazine put her on its "100 Most Beautiful People" list in May 2007, describing her as an Angel.

Twelve consecutive shows

The contract ended in 2008, but the castings did not. She returned for every show through 2016, which put her on the runway alongside two generations of Angels, from Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio to Taylor Hill. Few models without a current Angel contract were booked that consistently.

Swimwear, Yamamay and Armani Exchange

Her lingerie and beachwear work outside Victoria's Secret is scattered but real. In 2008 she replaced Ambrosio as the face of A/X Armani Exchange for three seasonal campaigns. In 2011 she appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and in the 10th anniversary collection of Yamamay, the Italian underwear chain. In 2013 she modeled the spring/summer 2014 beachwear of the Brazilian label Agua de Coco and became a face of MAC Cosmetics' Tropical Taboo range.

GQ Portugal named her its International Woman of the Year in 2013. Her runway record with Victoria's Secret, though, is the line that keeps her in lingerie history: a dozen years on one of the most watched catwalks in fashion, most of them without wings on the contract.

Last updated October 7, 2026