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

Gisele Bundchen was reduced to tears by the experience

Gisele Bundchen was reduced to tears by the experience

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.

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."