Portuguese model Sara Sampaio topless photo by Terry Richardson for ‘Best of the Season’ Purple Fashion #18 Fall/Winter 2012
Sara Pinto Sampaio (born 21 July 1991) is a Portuguese model best known for being a Victoria’s Secret Angel and working for Calzedonia, as well as her appearance in the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, a first for a Portuguese supermodel, for which she won Rookie of the Year.
She has appeared in magazines such as GQ, Elle, Vogue, Glamour and Sports Illustrated. Since 2017, Sara is the Beauty Ambassador for Moroccanoil. She won Portuguese Golden Globes in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for Best Female Model.
As of June 2017, Sampaio is the 20th most popular top model on social media in the world, with a total of 9 million followers across social media. She is also the most popular on social media among the new Victoria’s Secret Angels and the 4th most popular Victoria’s Secret Angel, only after veteran models Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Candice Swanepoel. Sara Sampaio is currently ranked by Models.com as one of the “Top Sexiest Models” in the fashion industry.
Sara Sampaio grew up in the outskirts of Porto, Portugal, then moved to New York City to start her career. In interviews with Vogue, Sampaio talks about being photographed nude. She considers her modeling a form of artistic expression, and nudity empowering. Sara feels confident and said in the interview, “At the end of the day, we were born naked, and that’s the way we are gonna go”. She believes everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin no matter shape or size. For this reason, Sara has spoken out against skinny shaming, and mentioned in an interview that the amount of hate that her and other Victoria’s Secret models experience is ridiculous. She says that “every body is different and every metabolism is different”. The model was part of “The Perfect Body” VS campaign that was later changed to “A Body for Everybody”.
In 2012, Sampaio dated model River Viiperi, who later dated the American socialite Paris Hilton. The year after, the Top model reportedly had a relationship with singer Alex DeLeon. In early 2015, the supermodel caught the attention of the media, after being seen together with One Direction’s member Harry Styles. Sara was rumored to be the singer’s new girlfriend in June 2015. However, in 2016, Sara assumed publicly a new relationship with businessman and British millionaire Oliver Ripley.
