Gisele Bundchen discusses her early modelling career

Gisele Bundchen suffered a “traumatising” experience at a catwalk show when she was just 18.

The 41-year-old model was reduced to tears at London Fashion Week in 1998, when she was asked to wear a breast-baring outfit at an Alexander McQueen show, and Gisele still considers the experience to be one of the lowest points of her career.

Gisele Bundchen was reduced to tears by the experience

She recalled: “This was one of the most traumatising moments. I didn’t have a fitting so when I showed up at the show, I was like, ‘So what am I wearing?’

“I could say a few words [in English at the time] but I didn’t understand half the things, [so] I just pretended I understood. I had no clue. And I was like, ‘Is it a T-shirt or something?’ No, it was this. So I started crying.”

Gisele recalled that her make-up artist begged her to stop crying because her tears threatened to ruin her work.

The model also worried about her dad seeing her in the skimpy outfit.

Gisele – who has Vivian, nine, and Benjamin, 12, with her husband Tom Brady – told British Vogue: “I had these feathers attached to my lashes so as I was crying they were ungluing and the make-up artist was like, ‘Please don’t cry!’

“I was walking the whole time thinking, ‘I hope my dad doesn’t ever see this picture.’

“That’s why I have the memory of this show.”

Gisele now regards the heart-breaking experience as one of the biggest lessons of her decades-long career.

The blonde beauty thinks she actually became “stronger” as a result of the pain it caused her.

Reflecting on the experience, Gisele shared: “All I wanted to do was leave but, you know, it’s one of those things that makes you stronger.”