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64EARTH MOTHER“Cold is not my flavor,” says Gisele. “I’m Brazilian. I’d ratherlive barefoot in a hut in the middle of the forest somewhere.”Dior dress, bra, and briefs. Kenneth Jay Lane earrings.``````n a cheerless spring after-noon, under a dark New England sky churning with windand rain, I trudge across a field in search of Gisele Bündchen.I know the setting well (it is Brookline, Massachusetts,the town in which I grew up), and perhaps it’s a functionof the narrowness of my nostalgia that I find it so difficultto imagine her in this place. But here Gisele is, her skin andhair gold as if touched by some distant sun, her long, emotivelimbs moving swiftly through the wooden barn that she callsthe sanctuary because for her it is exactly that—a refuge formeditation and for work, a short, frequently muddy walkup the hill from the vast brick house that she shares withher husband, the New England Patriots quarterback TomBrady, and their two children.“Why do I live here? It’s called love,” Gisele says. “I lovemy husband. My kids were born here, in our old apartmenton Beacon Street. They’re little Bostonians, and they lovethe weather. But I’m not going to lie. Cold is not my flavor.I’m Brazilian. I’d rather live barefoot in a hut in the middleof the forest somewhere.”Although she is arguably the most successful model in his-tory, Gisele has not made the modeling world her milieu. Shedoes not float, like Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell, throughfashion’s wandering party with a champagne coupe in hand.Nor—though she turns 38 this month—has she retired to thehall of legends. Gisele is in every respect a working model, onewho has retained her currency in an industry with a weaknessfor the new. She has carefully protected her famous assets (itis no coincidence that she is married to a man known for hisown rigorous self-discipline), and, unlike so many legends, shemaintains a reputation for professionalism that has made hera favorite of photographers. But glamour does not interestGisele, and she insists it never did. She has been conjuring afuture larger than fashion ever since she was a freshly pickedfourteen-year-old, suddenly living in Japan, with a massive