Esther Canadas: From 90s Icon to Timeless Beauty

Vogue supermodel Esther Canadas came to fame in the late 1990s.

The beauty from was often compared to as she had almond-shaped eyes and very large lips.

In 1997 she met male model Mark Vanderloo on a steamy DKNY fashion shoot and they fell in love. At the time he was called the model version of .

The two wed in 1999 but stayed married for only a year as she moved on to other famous people like hotelier Vikram Chatwal, whom she became engaged to in 2013.

Recently the leggy wonder posed in a string bikini on a beach for photos shared to Instagram, stunning her fans with her incredibly youthful appearance. See her now at 49.

Canadas was born in the small town of Albacete, Spain in 1977.

After her mother convinced her she should become a model as a teenager, she started getting work in Barcelona, and then landed jobs in Milan and New York City.

She was an instant hit thanks to her resemblance to actress Jolie and impressive slender frame with a 5ft10in height.

That made her a favorite for runway shows with top fashion houses such as Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Valentino and Givenchy.

Some of her photo shoots with Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon and Ellen Von Unwerth, and her Vogue cover shoots became legendary.

In 1997, she posed in lingerie as she walked the famed Victoria's Secret fashion show. 

She held her own as she worked alongside Heidi Klum, Claudia Schiffer and Tyra Banks for the show held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

But it was when she modeled for DKNY that her life changed.

She was cast as a chic New Yorker who had it all: the job, the looks, the fashion, for a classic '90s power woman image.

Females wanted to resemble her as she posed in little black dresses for dates and suits for the boardroom.

She also famously represented the brand's perfumes with hyper sexy ads.

Then she worked with the hottest male model of the 1990s, Vanderloo.

The Dutch star just happened to be a dead ringer for movie icon Brad Pitt.

Vanderloo - who was nine years older than Canadas - was at the height of his career and the best-paid male model in the world.

Esther and Mark became the 'it' couple of New York City as they hit red carpet events and worked together for photo shoots.

Her career was doing so well she was cast as the mysterious hot blonde who was close to Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

Canadas was convincing as the woman with a secret past who made the investigator, played by Rene Russo, jealous.

It looked like she was going to have a Hollywood movie career, but she backed away from that with the exception of the 2000 TV movie Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble.

Meanwhile, things got even more serious with Vanderloo and they wed in 1999. Their nuptials made magazine covers and became international news. But their marriage lasted only one year as they divorced and went their separate ways.

He went on to become the face of Hugo Boss and as an actor, he was Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect trilogy.

Canadas continued to thrive with her career as she posed for Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire while doing photo shoots for high-level photographers such as Steven Meisel.

In December 2014, Canadas gave birth to a daughter, Galia. The identity of the father is unknown to the public and she has raised the child as a single mother.

Last week the star shared a collection of stunning bikini photos as she posed on a beach. Canadas looked as young as she did in the 1990s as her body is still in excellent shape.

'3 Sundays for Summer ☀️ Are you ready?' read her caption as she shared photos of a pristine coastline and a plate of pasta as well as images of her in a leopard-print bikini.

She still models frequently and in 2025 worked again for Donna Karan. 

'My career started in New York, with Donna Karan, and working with them now feels like coming full circle, with purpose, everything falls into place,' she wrote on Instagram.

Canadas added, 'Coming back to where it all began, years later and from a different place in life, is deeply meaningful to me. You will always be family.'

Her latest campaign was for the spring 2026 Carolina Herrera collection.