Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima are two internationally known models whose careers belong to different generations but have repeatedly crossed on major fashion runways and through brands including Victoria’s Secret and Maybelline. They are not publicly documented as relatives, and the strongest available evidence describes their connection as professional rather than familial.
Their shared history is especially visible at Victoria’s Secret. Lima began working with the company in 1998 and first appeared in its fashion show in 1999, becoming one of the defining Angels of its most prominent era. Hadid entered the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show much later, making her debut in 2015 as part of a newer generation of models whose careers developed alongside the rise of social media.
That difference in timing is central to understanding the pair. By the time Hadid was becoming one of fashion’s most recognizable new faces, Lima had already spent well over a decade at the top of the international modeling industry. Hadid later made that generational relationship explicit, saying during Lima’s emotional 2018 Victoria’s Secret farewell that she had “grown up watching her.”
Their story is therefore less about a private friendship than about two modeling eras meeting on the same runway.
Adriana Lima was established long before Gigi Hadid’s breakthrough
Adriana Lima’s professional career began years before Hadid entered high fashion.
Born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Lima won Ford’s Brazilian modeling competition as a teenager. Her career then took her to New York, and she appeared on the Anna Sui runway in 1997. Victoria’s Secret dates the beginning of its relationship with Lima to 1998, followed by her first appearance in the company’s fashion show in 1999.
That early start placed Lima among the models who came to define the Victoria’s Secret era of the 2000s. Her relationship with the company eventually lasted for nearly two decades during its original run, making her one of the most closely associated faces in the brand’s history.
She also developed a substantial beauty-industry career. Lima had previously served as a global Maybelline spokesperson from 2003 to 2009 and returned to the brand in 2014.
By the middle of the 2010s, she was not simply another model appearing alongside Hadid. She represented an already established supermodel generation against which younger models were increasingly being measured.
Gigi Hadid emerged with a new modeling generation
Gigi Hadid’s rise followed a different timeline.
Her professional return to modeling came in 2011, and she signed with IMG Models in 2013. By February 2014, she had made her New York Fashion Week debut, beginning the rapid transition from promising young model to internationally recognized fashion figure.
Hadid’s career developed during a period when fashion increasingly overlapped with digital culture and enormous social-media audiences. Contemporary reporting surrounding the 2015 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show captured that shift clearly: Adriana Lima was positioned among the established supermodel mainstays, while Hadid represented the newer group of high-profile models entering the show with strong public visibility beyond traditional fashion media.
Hadid’s career soon expanded beyond runway work. She became associated with major fashion houses and Tommy Hilfiger, and later moved into business and television. She launched the knitwear label Guest in Residence in 2022 and became a host of Next in Fashion in 2023.
Those later projects reflect a career model different from the one that originally made Lima famous. Hadid’s public role has extended into entrepreneurship and entertainment while she has continued modeling.
Their careers converged in 2015
The clearest point at which Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima’s professional histories came together was 2015.
In January of that year, Maybelline announced Hadid as a new spokesperson. The company’s announcement explicitly placed her on a roster that already included Lima, giving the two models a documented commercial connection.
Their paths also crossed on major designer runways. Both appeared in Balmain’s Fall 2015 show, and their shared runway history continued beyond that season. Vogue later documented Lima appearing at Versace alongside Hadid and other major models of the newer generation.
Most significantly, 2015 was Hadid’s first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Lima entered that show with years of Victoria’s Secret history behind her. Hadid arrived as one of its prominent newcomers. Contemporary coverage effectively presented them as representatives of two stages in the evolution of the supermodel: Lima from the established Angel era and Hadid from a generation whose fashion careers were amplified by social platforms and a rapidly changing celebrity culture.
That distinction makes their shared appearances more meaningful than a simple list of runway credits. They were working together at a moment when the fashion industry’s definition of a superstar model was changing.
Victoria’s Secret linked their careers most visibly
No brand provides a clearer thread between Lima and Hadid than Victoria’s Secret.
Lima’s association began in the late 1990s, and she became a longtime contractual Angel. Hadid’s position was different. She became a recurring Victoria’s Secret runway model beginning in 2015, but contemporary reporting distinguished her from the group of models who held the company’s traditional Angel contracts.
That historical distinction matters because the word “Angel” has sometimes been used more loosely in later fashion coverage. It is accurate to describe Lima as one of Victoria’s Secret’s longtime Angels. Hadid is more precisely described, particularly when discussing the original contractual system, as a Victoria’s Secret model and runway regular.
Their repeated appearances nevertheless gave them substantial common ground.
They shared the Victoria’s Secret runway during Hadid’s debut year and were both involved again in the 2018 show, which became an important moment in Lima’s career.
Gigi Hadid’s tribute during Lima’s 2018 farewell
The strongest public evidence about Hadid’s personal view of Lima came during the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
That event was presented at the time as Lima’s final appearance for the company after nearly two decades as one of its defining models. The farewell was emotional, and Hadid spoke backstage about what Lima represented to her.
Hadid said she had “grown up watching her.”
The remark provides a useful window into their relationship as models from different generations. Hadid had entered an industry in which Lima was already an established figure, then eventually found herself sharing some of the same major runways with her.
It would be misleading, however, to turn that comment into evidence of a particularly close private friendship. Their public history supports describing them as industry peers and professional contemporaries, with documented admiration from Hadid toward Lima. Reliable evidence does not establish the degree of their off-camera relationship.
Lima’s 2018 farewell also requires another clarification: she did not retire from modeling. The occasion marked the end of her original Victoria’s Secret tenure at that point, not the end of her career.
Later events made that distinction especially clear.
Their Victoria’s Secret reunion in 2024 and 2025
After the traditional Victoria’s Secret runway show disappeared for several years, the company revived the format in 2024.
Both Hadid and Lima took part.
Their presence brought the generational contrast of the 2015 show into a new period. Lima returned as one of the most recognizable figures from Victoria’s Secret’s earlier history, while Hadid returned with a decade of her own experience as one of the leading models of the generation that followed.
The reunion also demonstrated why describing Lima’s 2018 appearance as a retirement would be inaccurate. Six years after that farewell, she was again walking for Victoria’s Secret.
Both models appeared in the 2025 show as well. For Lima, the event carried a particular milestone: Victoria’s Secret documented it as her 20th fashion show for the company.
Few facts illustrate the difference in their Victoria’s Secret histories more clearly. Hadid became part of the show in 2015; Lima’s participation stretched back to 1999 and ultimately reached 20 appearances.
Yet their repeated appearances together also show how those separate eras increasingly overlapped.
Are Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima related or close friends?
There is no reliable evidence establishing a family relationship between Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima. They should therefore be described as fellow models and professional peers, not relatives.
Their careers have intersected repeatedly enough that photographs and runway appearances naturally connect their names. They have worked within the same Victoria’s Secret shows, appeared in major designer casts and overlapped as Maybelline spokesmodels.
Hadid’s 2018 remarks also establish genuine admiration for Lima’s career.
What the public record does not establish is a particularly close private friendship. Shared professional appearances are not enough to demonstrate that, and there is no need to speculate about an off-camera relationship when their documented connection is already substantial.
Two different versions of the modern supermodel
The comparison between Lima and Hadid is most useful when viewed through the evolution of the modeling industry itself.
Lima’s career emerged from the traditional late-1990s runway and agency system. Her rise preceded today’s social-media-driven celebrity culture, and her long association with Victoria’s Secret made her one of the defining faces of an era in which an Angel contract could become a major part of a model’s international identity.
Hadid’s breakthrough came in the 2010s, when fashion models could build enormous public profiles across runway work, campaigns, celebrity media and digital platforms simultaneously.
By 2015, those generations were visibly sharing the same stage.
The contrast appeared not only at Victoria’s Secret but on designer runways such as Balmain and Versace. Lima could arrive as an already established supermodel while Hadid represented the newer wave reshaping fashion’s public-facing culture.
Neither career is simply a substitute for the other. Their professional paths illustrate how the meaning of being a globally famous model changed between the late 1990s and the 2010s.
Where Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima stand in 2026
Their shared fashion history remains relevant in 2026.
Victoria’s Secret announced in July 2026 that Gigi Hadid would return for its 2026 Fashion Show in Los Angeles, continuing a relationship that began with her first appearance in 2015.
As of August 10, 2026, the official material examined for Adriana Lima did not contain an equivalent announcement confirming her for the 2026 cast. Her most recent confirmed Victoria’s Secret runway appearance in the available record is therefore the 2025 show, when she reached her 20th appearance.
That status could change as the 2026 lineup develops, but it should not be anticipated without an official announcement.
Their older Maybelline connection should also be treated historically rather than as a statement about current contracts. What is firmly documented is that their time as Maybelline spokesmodels overlapped in 2015.
Final thoughts
Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima are connected by fashion history rather than by family ties or a publicly established close friendship.
Lima entered the international modeling world in the 1990s and became one of the defining Victoria’s Secret Angels of the following two decades. Hadid broke through in the 2010s, entering Victoria’s Secret at a moment when a newer, digitally amplified generation of models was reshaping the industry’s public image.
Their careers met through Maybelline, designer runways and, most visibly, Victoria’s Secret. Hadid’s comment that she grew up watching Lima captures the relationship particularly well: one began as part of the generation observing the other and eventually became her runway peer.
Their continued appearances in the revived Victoria’s Secret shows in 2024 and 2025 turned that generational handoff into an ongoing professional connection—one that links two distinct periods in modern supermodel history.
